I have not yet seen the Fox series, which premieres July 28. But all it takes is the promos for me to believe it's the height of hypocrisy, and that Fox's declarations that the show is "inspirational" are ridiculous. …
Today's mailbag column, with questions about the end of "Soap," a pregnancy on "The Bold & The Beautiful" and how to connect your VCR to your digital-to-analog box, is here. And since there was some delay in getting last week's mailbag online, you can find it here. That one includes some FAQs for the mailbag.
I read with some interest the new Todd Purdum piece on Sarah Palin from Vanity Fair. Can't say it changed any of my thinking about her. But it did make me think of some other recent reading: "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus," a book by Rick Perlstein. It was part of my vacation reading, and has lots of parallels between Palin's view of political tactics and Goldwater's. It's also a good book even without that context.
After a break, I have started posting again over at Northeast Ohio Onscreen. One item deals with a 1999 TV-movie with Judd Nelson as Alan Freed, which is coming out on DVD next week, as well as a "Sports Night" shot at Akron. Another looks at the "West Wing" episode "Mr. Willis of Ohio." Coming soon is a hat tip to Rick Dailey and his Web site about locations where "Route 66" was made, including quite a few in NE Ohio.
That's the name of the new foundation announced on last night's "So You Think You Can Dance." The goal is to help "talented underserved youth" in dance. Katie Holmes is involved (and, as previously reported, will perform on "SYTYCD's" July 23 telecast). Full announcement after the jump.
He was an Oscar winner, a perennial on TV, a stage actor, a friend and repeat co-star of Marlon Brando, just about always believable and natural in his work. And his believability meant that, for decades, most people took his word on this:
Malden was 97. Look for him on DVD in "Fear Strikes Out," "On the Waterfront," "A Streetcar Named Desire" (his Oscar winner), "The Cincinnati Kid," "Patton." There are also some sets of "The Streets of San Francisco."
Update: TCM has set a Karl Malden tribute on 7/10:
8 p.m. (ET) On the Waterfront (1952) – Malden earned an Oscar-nomination for his performance as a priest who helps prize-fighter wannabe Marlon Brando come to terms with a corrupt boss. Elia Kazan’s gritty drama co-stars Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint and Lee J. Cobb.
10 p.m. (ET) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) – Malden took home an Academy Award when he reprised his Broadway role for Elia Kazan’s adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play. Fellow Oscar winners Vivian Leigh and Kim Hunter co-star, along with screen powerhouse Marlon Brando.
12:15 a.m. (ET) Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) – Malden co-starred opposite Burt Lancaster in this true story about Robert Stroud, a convict who became a world-renowned bird expert. Thelma Ritter, Betty Field, Neville Brand and Telly Savalas also star in this John Frankenheimer drama.
The cast will be broken into four HS-style cliques. And there will be a mystery houseguest. Announcement after the jump.
Tom Shales has offered a defense of TV critics. Too bad it's short and overloaded with strained jokes.
Recent Blu-ray announcements include "My Cousin Vinny" (Aug. 4) and the original movie of "MASH" (Sept. 1). I'm a fan of Blu-ray in a lot of cases, but not convinced that it will add anything to the viewing of either of those movies.
Speaking of Blu-ray, Newsweek offered a look at Neil Young's embrace of the format — and the whole question of what it takes to convince someone to go Blu-ray — here.
CBS and NBC announced their fall premiere dates while I was on vacation. In case you missed them, I've posted the announcements after the jump.
Thirteen movies, 17 discs, coming Sept. 22. Decent price, too, if you don't have the movies already. But if you're a movie fan, you should have at least some of them. Full announcement after the jump.
So Ed quits "The Bachelorette" to save his job, then decides that he needs love more, so he tries to un-quit, and Jillian (and the show's producers) let him. Speidi announce — more than once — they are leaving "I'm a Celebrity" and somehow they keep coming back. Terrell Owens and Joanna Krupa get eliminated from "The Superstars" — but they're back in the promos for tonight's telecast.
Used to be that when, say, a contestant quit "Survivor," that was it. No going back. Chance to win gone. But these days, shows will do anything to jack the ratings, including having performers play peek-a-boo with the audience.
"I'm a Celebrity" was the most blatant case, with NBC so convinced that Speidi were the key to getting young viewers, they let the duo come and go more often than a kid with a stack of stolen hall passes. Similarly, from what little I managed to sit through of "The Superstars," the show was a giant snorefest — lots of huffing and puffing along streets and on bicycles. But I missed the Krupa/T.O. scrap which was apparently the only thing anyone remembered from the first episode — and therefore sufficient motivation for ABC to use them for additional publicity.
But "The Bachelorette" has proven especially desperate for compelling storylines since the idea of mere courtship is somehow inadequate. It has been more than willing to make Jillian look like a total dope re Wes, even in the face of repeated accusations against him by other bachelors and his own wooden, insincere declarations. It alllowed the Jake-Wes confrontation, and then let Ed ask to return – which Jillian went along with. What, did the job situation which supposedly forced him to leave suddenly improve? Does he think he's in line to be the next star of "The Bachelor"? (It seems to me more likely that the show is lining up Jake for that job.)
It's all manipulation, of course, but I get drawn into it. (Also, the bride watches "The Bachelorette.") Am still waiting as well for the "Bachelorette's" heavily-hinted-at moment of impotence for one of the guys. Cue up "Band of Gold." …
But I also try not to be blind to rampaging hypocrisy, in these show's playing around and in things like the latest round of Jon & Kate melodrama.
Like this recent statement from the couple: "During this very difficult time we will be working to focus solely on the needs of our family. This includes no longer commenting publicly or reacting to media stories and speculation. Our goal is to do the very best for our children and that will be done as privately as possible. We appreciate the understanding, support and well wishes from so many."
And where was all this concern when Kate was giving a cover-story interview to People magazine — complete with a visit with her and the children? Where does that fit under "privately as possible"?
Should we all start wondering when Kate will star on "The Bachelorette"?
And back to work. (Maynard G. Krebs, pictured, can tell you about how to react to work.) Good to be home and among friends, but I am still thinking about those Hawaiian beaches. This will pass soon enough.
A few notes upon returning:
As I think I have said before, if you're flying Continental, leave your legs at home. And maybe an arm. The flights were on time (even early on our last leg back), but they were also crammed full, and Continental's idea of what constitutes leg room is a lot less generous than mine. The close to 10 hours in the air on return from Hawaii was made bearable only by having a mid-point change in LA. Gave us a little time to restore circulation.
As I already mentioned on Facebook, the idea of paying for luggage may be a good one for the airlines — especially now that gas prices have come back from their uppermost extremes — but they add to the burden of traveling. Carry-on bags are getting much bigger, and the idea of that "personal item" to go with the carry-on is also ever more vast. Those lead to hugely stuffed cargo bins, and more delays in getting on and off planes as people deal with loading and unloading their swag. Not to mention the perils of getting sideswiped by an aggressive traveler with a wheeled case and a backpack.
On the other hand, I am all for the individual screens and on-demand activities we encountered on some flights. Video poker passes the time.
On more of a work-related note, those of you who have checked in here over the past week know that I was not entirely off the blog while on vacation. The culture doesn't stop. My urge to talk about it remains. But it is eerie how my vacations seem to coincide with celebrities' deaths. And not just this year. In '08, I was home and packing — and word came that Tim Russert had died.
Before I took off on this vacation, I wrote a piece about Walter Cronkite, since there was talk he was near the end. I had also been thinking for some time about Farrah Fawcett, though I hadn't written anything down. (What I was thinking, though, is in the post below.) Since this vacation began, Ed McMahon has died, Farrah Fawcett has died, Michael Jackson has died. And I have been thinking a lot about death, but not just because of their passing. …
Back when the celebratory special "Motown 25" aired, I made a recording of it with my enormous Betamax and put the tape on during a casual party we were having. As it went on, more and more of the party crowd gravitated toward the TV, and things pretty much stopped in their tracks while the Jackson 5 reunited and then Michael performed solo.
He did the moon walk. He broke the Motown-songs-only barrier with, I think, "Billie Jean." Something from the era when Michael was indeed contending to be the King of Pop. It was a stunning moment, and one that — like so many other Jackson musical triumphs — was later tainted.
It was tainted by his eccentricity, the allegations of sexual misconduct, the seeming madness that made it difficult to revisit the MJ classics. As great as some of those songs were, both with the Jacksons and Michael solo, I have stopped short of loading him up on my iPod. Because every time I thought about Michael, I thought about the man as much as the music.
As Farrah Fawcett moved inevitably toward death, I have thought a lot about how different her life might have been had she not fallen prey to a myth of show-business success.
That myth, of course, is that it is better to be a star in the movies than in TV. …
Tuesday morning the bride and I were again energetic tourists. We went to the USS Arizona memorial early and were in the first tour group at 7:45 a.m. A short but very effective film preceded the tour itself. The monument is well designed, notably because it lets you see the stretch of remains of the ship underwater. Vivid reminder of what happened there. We also looked at the submarine memorials, including a walk through the sub Bowfin. Amazing how they got around in that thing; so small, so cramped. And photos don't really convey how cramped it was.
Beach time in the afternoon. Amusing tourists to watch, from a 10-month-old baby crawling in a shaded area and making friends with anyone else who happened in the shade, to an older woman who stood and changed her top in the middle of the beach without a care about what she was sharing with everyone else there.
Meant to mention that when we went to Diamond Head on Monday, I was wearing a U of Akron shirt; as we were coming down from the crater, we passed another couple heading up. The guy looked at my shirt and said, "Go Zips!" Not that such familiarity was always good; guys trying to get you to sign up for tours and time-shares have tried to use the Akron logo as a way of starting a conversation.
You can guess what about, right? LeBron. One guy we politely extricated ourselves from used as his parting shot that he was really a Nuggets fan.
Today we are going to be more relaxed — no touring on the agenda. Hoping to soak up more sun, and take some more pictures. There's an old War Memorial near our hotel which has fascinated me. Turns out it's for WW I, in honor of the Hawaiians killed in action, and was at one time an Olympic-size swimming pool. The pool is closed, although you can peek through the boarded-up areas but the front has been spruced up some.
And on the vacation goes.
Still in Hawaii, and still in a more or less constant state of confusion re the time. But otherwise plenty interesting. …
(Cell-phone photo from hotel-room balcony)
Right now I am in the distant time zone of Hawaii, trying to adjust to the change and the effects of extended travel, as part of a long anticipated vacation. A few notes after the jump.
But first, a quick other note: You may be seeing some odd looking posts here, like the "Waltz With Bashir" DVD column and HeldenFiles, below. These are links to Beacon Journal columns available on Ohio.com. Click on the header to go to the complete piece.
And now, The Bride And I Take a Road Trip…
Waltz With Bashir is one of those movies that grabs you with its images, haunts you with its words and stays with you long after the credits have rolled.
It was 15 years ago, late in June 1994, that I began working for the Beacon Journal as a TV critic. After the jump: My introductory column.
Game On. More Than a Game, the up-close documentary about the St. Vincent-St. Mary boys' basketball team in 2003, will finally hit local theaters in October.
The audience for the show has dipped since the season premiere, which was heavily viewed; the decline has come even with boatloads of J&K coverage — paparazzi photos, magazine covers. It was as if people decided to believe the old PR cliche about respecting people's privacy by letting J&K go about their televised and untelevised business without looking in. And when that happens, of course, what should be private becomes promo fodder:
Kirby Dick is a deliberately provocative filmmaker, but also an effective one. His acclaimed documentary, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, not only pointed out the arbitrariness of the movie-rating system, it forced the people doing the ratings to make some changes in their process.
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