Above, legendary punk trio Hüsker Dü meet Joan Rivers and perform on her Late Show in 1987.
I have a special love for Hüsker Dü as they were my first club show, back in 1985 or so. (My first concert was Styx and, yes, that was amazing too.) Over the years, I've gotten to know Hüsker Dü guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould who is a very warm, funny, and kind gentleman. Bob has a new album, Blue Hearts, coming out September 25 and I can't wait for him to melt my face with another live show sometime in the hopefully not-too-distant future. Below from the forthcoming record is "Forecast of Rain" along with a classic Boing Boing Video performance/interview with Bob produced by the talented team at Remedy Editorial.
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On January 16, 1985, BBC One was playing a classic Star Trek rerun when something weird and wonderful occurred. They might call it a "Temporary Fault" but Sulu knows it as... paradise.
(ObscureMedia, thanks UPSO!) Read the rest
Comedian and filmmaker Matthew Highton recreates classic TV show title sequences using only stock footage. The results remind me of the Seinfeld episode "The Bizarro Jerry." Above, Highton's take on Friends. Below, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and, yes, Ducktales.
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Mike Judge will revive Beavis and Butt-head for two seasons of the seminal cartoon-cum-cultural criticism. (Heh heh, I wrote "cum," heh heh.) The original TV series aired on MTV from 1993 to 1997 and featured the two teens hilariously deconstructing the very music videos that MTV played at the time. A feature film followed in 1996 and then another MTV season in 2011. Also, I need TP for my bunghole. From the New York Times:
Comedy Central said in a news release that its latest “Beavis and Butt-Head” series will find the characters “entering a whole new Gen Z world” and dealing with “meta-themes relatable to both new and old fans — Gen X parents and their Gen Z kids.”
Judge said in a statement, “It seemed like the time was right to get stupid again.”
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Legendary comedian, actor, writer, and director Carl Reiner has died at age 98. Reiner is best known for performing with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca on the 1950s TV variety program Your Show of Shows and later creating The Dick Van Dyke Show. He also directed George Burns in the classic "Oh God!" (1977), Steve Martin in "The Jerk" (1979) and acted in movies and TV shows like "Ocean's Eleven" (2001), "Parks and Recreation," and "House." From the New York Times:
As part of a stellar supporting cast that also included Imogene Coca and Howard Morris, Mr. Reiner proved his versatility week after week on “Your Show of Shows,” which ran from 1950 to 1954 on NBC and established the template for sketch comedy on television. He played everything from a harried commuter to a frenzied rock ’n’ roller to an unctuous quiz-show host. But he is probably best remembered as an interviewer, solemnly posing questions to a mad professor, a spaced-out jazz musician or some other over-the-top character played by Mr. Caesar, and adding to the humor simply by being serious.
Mr. Reiner contributed behind the scenes as well. He took part in the frenzied writing sessions that shaped the show, bouncing jokes off the walls of the writers’ room with the likes of Mr. Brooks and Neil Simon.
“I became a writer because of that room,” he recalled. “I’d say something and somebody would yell: ‘What do you know? You’re not a writer.’ So I became a writer.”
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Apple took on the challenge of Isaac Asimov's magnificently boring masterpiece Foundation, which has managed to evade screen adaptation for fifty years. Here's the trailer. I'm looking forward to episode after episode of Jared Harris explaining things to stupid people, a role at which he is, it has to be admitted, magnificently good. Posing Seldon as a sci-fi Legasov strikes me as the masterstroke that makes the whole production possible. Read the rest
For such a terrible idea Opposite Worlds is shockingly fun to watch. Filmed in 2014 this reality tv disasterpiece has two teams facing off each week. One team has been living in a super modern home with all the advantages, and the other is emulating neanderthal living.
You will be unsurprised at how well-fed people getting lots of rest can outperform folks forced to huddle together for warmth and poop in a pit toilet!
I laugh and laugh as the show struggles to create some sort of competition. I hope they bring it back. Read the rest
It's creepy and it's kooky. Also kind of spooky. Read the rest
Leonard Cohen performs "First We Take Manhattan" on Sweden's Kulturen TV program in June 1988. It's perfectly bizarro 1980s while also being so very Cohen.
Below, Cohen's interview on the same program:
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In 1984, Leonard Nimoy produced and starred in "Star Trek Memories," a TV special in which he reminisces about Star Trek: The Original Series and the first two Star Trek movies, and teases the forthcoming Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). Never one to be outdone, Captain Kirk released "William Shatner's Star Trek Memories" straight to video a decade later. Watch that below.
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Wow. This is a thing of great beauty. A giant 3D topographic wood map of Westeros, the world of Game of Thrones, by IMGURian @ARUNK55. It's 60"x35". Read the rest
From the stately and elegant Batmobile Cadillac seen in the 1943 movie serials to the latest militaristic models, this is the on-screen history of Batman's Batmobile. Of course the true high point was the 1955 Lincoln Futura tricked out by George Barris for the 1960s TV series.
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In the early 1980s, Ministry's Al Jourgensen made ends meet by recording advertising jingles. Above is a TV commercial he soundtracked for Shasta soda that aired in 1983, the same year Ministry released their debut album "With Sympathy" (featuring Jourgensen's faux English accent). From his autobiography Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen:
“Before Sire picked up Ministry I was writing TV and radio jingles to help support our drug habits, pay the rent, and feed the baby. I did a commercial for Shasta and some stuff for Huffy, and every time I left the studio I wanted to kill myself. It really put into perspective what my dad had to go through, cutting off his lifelong dream to support a family. That’s what I was doing, and it was horrific, but it toughened me up. If you cut me up right now and put me on a plate, I’d be some tough meat. You couldn’t eat it; it would be toxic, tough, and chewy. No, there’s no cannibalism with me. The deal with Huffy came to an end when I gave them this song for a bike called the Panther, and at the end of this cheesy tune they wanted me to purr loudly into the mike. I said, “Fuck you. Get someone else to purr. I quit.”
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Yes, the crate said "killer bees" not "murder hornets," but we know what they meant. The above clip is from "Marge in Chains" (season 4, episode 21).
A response from The Simpsons writer Bill Oakley:
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Nicolas Cage is to star in a Netflix TV show as Joe "Exotic" Maldonado-Passage, a roadside zookeeper jailed for animal abuse and for trying to arrange the murder of a prominent critic. Exotic's egomaniacal rise and fall, as charted in a recent reality TV show, gripped the nation in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.
Netflix’s documentary series Tiger King was a major surprise hit, spawning countless memes and tributes, plus an ill-advised aftershow episode. Unsurprisingly, the series’ success has rapidly inspired the development of more Tiger King-based projects, including a limited series (based on the Joe Exotic podcast) starring Kate McKinnon as Carole Baskin.
The latest news is even more unbelievable, as Variety reports that none other than Nicolas Cage has signed on to play Joe Exotic in a scripted series from Dan Lagana (American Vandal showrunner) and Paul Young.
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Fandango dang sure isn't selling movie theater tickets anymore. And Walmart appears to be easing out of the video-on-demand business, and into... something else. Read the rest
Wow, Dr. Phil is awful. Mister Phil, really. Gentle reminder than “Dr. Phil” is not a licensed doctor. Read the rest
