Winter Is Coming -- April 1st

Playing Shakespeare

If you're interested in Shakespeare, in poetry or in theater, I think you'll enjoy PLAYING SHAKESPEARE now available to stream on Netflix. 


In 1979 Trevor Nunn, then artistic director of Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company, created a TV workshop on the art and technique of acting in Shakespeare's plays. He was joined by RSC co-founder and Associate Director John Barton and a group of the leading RSC actors of the day. There were 9 programs that aired from 1979 - 1984.


Among the actors participating in PLAYING SHAKESPEARE were: Ian McKellen (Gandolf/Magneto), Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard/Prof. X), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi/Schindler's List), Judi Dench (M from the Bond films/As Time Goes By), David Suchet (Hercule Poirot) and Peggy Ashcroft.




And here is Fry & Laurie's parody of PLAYING SHAKESPEARE. It's a sketch about a Shakespeare masterclass ("an actor prepares"), where a teacher (Stephen Fry) with delusions of grandeur gives pretentious, nonsensical acting advice to his eager student (Laurie).

Watch The Little Aired Unofficial Twilight Zone Pilot

Image via WikipediaThe Time Element (1958)

CBS purchased the teleplay in 1957 from writer Rod Serling. Serling hoped it to be the pilot of a weekly anthology series.

The Time Element was purchased only to be shelved indefinitely, and talks of making The Twilight Zone a television series ended.

This is where things stood when Bert Granet,  the new producer for Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, discovered The Time Element in CBS' vaults while searching for an original Serling script to add prestige to his show. The episode (introduced by Desi Arnaz) debuted on November 24, 1958, to both fan and critical praise. "The humor and sincerity of Mr. Serling's dialogue made 'The Time Element' consistently entertaining," wrote Jack Gould of The New York Times. After six thousand letters of praise flooded CBS, they again began talks with Serling about the possibilities of producing The Twilight Zone. Where Is Everybody? was accepted as the pilot episode and the project was announced in early 1959. The rest is history.

I have this little seen episode on my mind because of the just announced 1080p Blue Ray edition of Twilight Zone's first season. An HD transfer of this episode will be just one of its extras.


You can watch the rest of it here.

Related articles

• Bring back The Twilight Zone right now! [Rant] (io9.com)

LOST: It Wasn’t About The Answers, But The Journey

In the end LOST was, like life itself, not so much about the answers, but the journey.

The show dealt with issues we all struggle with regardless of religious views - why are we here, what really matters, what happens after we die. Who doesn't think about those things?

The final 15 minutes was shown through Jack's POV. So it was framed by his beliefs, his worldview. I imagine the Kwan's saw or would have seen it very differently. Was it purgatory? Was it a metaphysical room between universes and time? Was the island rewarding the "good" people? Was the sideways time all just that brief moment between Jack's life and his death? Was it something Jacob set up? Or Jacob/Jack? or Jacob/Hugo? I don't know. I don't care.

In the end, the story of LOST, the story that Damon and Carlton decided to share with us, was about these people. I thought the final scenes said so much about community and the importance of the families that we create through circumstance and love.

I'm good with that.

Sharing a Fun 2009 TV Moment, ‘Cause That’s Just How I Am

One of my favorite shows is the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. This year, Kristen Bell appeared on the show five times, sometimes as a guest, sometimes just reading an except from Craig’s new book.

I think this Dec. 2nd appearance is my favorite of the year. At the 3:30 mark she does a great impression of the viral Surprised Kitty video that made its rounds in the last two months of ‘09. She also explained to guest Paul Shaffer why he shouldn’t bring bagpipes to visit Craig, warns against creepy facebook relationships, and sits in Craig's chair. Watch and enjoy and Happy New Year!

My Favorite TV Shows of 2009

Battlestar Galactica (Syfy):
This reboot of a short-lived 1970s NBC Star Wars rip-off set the bar as high as its ever been set for science Fiction on TV. Beginning with a mostly unknown cadre of talented Canadian and English actors, BSG marked its final year and wrapped up some of the story-lines this year. Even though I liked the series finale, BSG did miss the mark with it. But the last few episodes leading up to it provided several moments of almost unbearable tenderness and poignancy. BSG shone when it forced us to look at ourselves. It touched on Bush era themes of terror, faith, and free will and played those themes out in the far distant galaxy that its rag-tag fleet inhabited. The SFX budget sometimes didn’t equal its bold vision, but BSG more than made up with a stable of amazing writers, directors, art designer, and composers; all of whom thoroughly understood their subject. BSG was my second favorite show of 2009, but easily gets my vote for best show of the Decade. Yes, even over The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood or The Shield.


Read more after the jump...

Becoming Human – The Last Human Standing

The third and final installment of Becoming Human, the NOVA series about our hominid relatives, airs tonight on PBS. I’m really enjoying the series. If you missed the past episodes, they are currently online at PBS’ Video site.

Tonight: The Fate of the Neanderthals:

NOVA examines the fate of the Neanderthals, our European cousins who died out as modern humans spread from Africa into Europe during the Ice Age. Did modern humans interbreed with Neanderthals or exterminate them? The program explores crucial evidence from the recent decoding of the Neanderthal genome.
How did modern humans take over the world? New evidence suggests that they left Africa and colonized the rest of the globe far earlier, and for different reasons, than previously thought. As for Homo sapiens, we have planet Earth to ourselves today, but that’s a very recent and unusual situation. For millions of years, many kinds of hominids coexisted. At one time Homo sapiens shared the planet with Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and the mysterious “Hobbits”—three-foot-high humans who thrived on the Indonesian island of Flores until as recently as 12,000 years ago.
“Last Human Standing” examines why “we” survived while those other ancestral cousins died out. And it explores the provocative question: In what ways are we still evolving today?

Felicia Day Visits Jimmy Fallon

Felicia Day of The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog visited Late Night last night and had a terrific interview with Jimmy.

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Your Hate Speech Today Will Be Brought To You By…

Until or unless there is a provable case that Glen Beck’s hate speech over the media may be causing concrete harms, he has myself and the First Amendment behind him. But do the corporations who sponsor his show want to become the face of hate and intolerance? I doubt it.

I’m PBS3 Famous

Actually still not famous at all.

I just received this tweet from the PBS and Internet nightly news show World Focus.

I went over to the site and they already have the episode up that will air tonight. (Here in Indianapolis: 10:30 PM on digital WFYI.3.) They didn’t actually mention me, but quoted from this tweet I sent them as a reply to this one. No biggie, but it’s worth a blog post at least.

Craig Ferguson’s Best.Rant.Ever!

Craig Ferguson Comes Up With The Grand Unified Theory

The Rockford Files Always Makes Me Happy

Sometimes I just like to go to Hulu.com and watch an old episode of the Rockford Files. It just makes me happy, nostalgic and usually delivers a good story, a laugh and a car chase. What's your favorite show from the past or present that does it for you? Is it on DVD, iTunes, Hulu? Share....

Evil Doers, Beware My Wrath

Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Our new favorite show! Cartoon Network @ 8 e Friday's. I thought this portrayal of Aquaman as an headstrong doofus was going to going to cheese off this guy. Turns out, he liked it. So do my 7 and 12 year olds. We all really love this show. Our new rallying cry around here has been ... "PLATE ... LET!!!"

All characters are property of DC comics. Be the first to know when Season One comes out on DVD and BlueRay.

A Game Of Thrones pilot script leaked

Image via WikipediaThis blog has released the full text of the A Game of Thrones pilot script. Or you can download it here.

Related articles

• HBO Reveals New Game of Thrones Preview (tor.com)
• "New Teaser For HBO's 'Game Of Thrones'" and related posts (deadline.com)

Just Some Random Star Trek Goodness

"Where No Fan Has Gone Before" is the eleventh episode of the fourth season of Futurama and is one of my favorite episodes. Bender, Leela and Fry, along with most of the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series, are court-martialed by Zapp Brannigan, who has the group recount the events that led to the court-martial for traveling to the forbidden planet Omega 3. Features lots of Star Trek  references and the voices of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Jonathan Frakes.

Tom Jones Rockin It on The Tonight Show

You read that correctly! Rockin.IT!

Oh! The Humanity!! In Which Gov. Palin Shows Us How Not to Pardon a Turkey

Not since the hilarious "Turkeys Away" episode of WKRP in Cincinnati has there been a more misguided use of Turkeys! Wearing a Burberry scarf, drinking a Starbucks Latte, former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin gave an interview yesterday on KTUU Channel 2 in Anchorage, Palin is interviewed at a turkey farm while a man drains the blood from dead turkeys in the background.

I partially grew up on a farm, I'm not a vegetarian, I love eating turkeys, and I don't inherently think there's anything wrong with eating them ... but honestly, how dumb is that to stage a T.V. interview right there. I believe most people are of the we-don't-want-to-see-how-our-food-gets-to-the-table-just-so-long-as-it-does mentality. And that's fine. Just more proof that she just doesn't get it and that Wasilla was missing their village idiot during this campaign!!

My favorite thing were the Chyrons below the MSNBC footage:

0:20 "TURKEYS DIE AS GOVERNOR PALIN TAKES QUESTIONS FROM THE MEDIA"
0:35 "GOV. SARAH PALIN KEEPS TALKING WHILE TURKEYS GET SLAUGHTERED BEHIND HER"
1:00 "GOV. PALIN APPARENTLY OBLIVIOUS TO TURKEY CARNAGE OVER HER SHOULDER"
1:20 "GOV. PALIN NOT REALIZING THE INCONGRUITY OF HER WORDS VERSUS HER BACKDROP"

I had to double check to make sure I wasn't watching The Daily Show.

Sarah Vowell On Jon Stewart: Does it Get Any Better?

Those who read this blog may remember that a month ago I received an advance copy of her new book The Wordy Shipmates to review and I'm sad to say, I haven't finished it yet so have yet to review it. Life sorta got in the way and I just wasn't feeling the Puritans, even via the extraordinary Ms. Vowell. I WILL read it and review it soon, promise.

Dave Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign & Dissing His Show

Niagara Falls, The Susquehanna Hat Company and Loafing

What are you doing today? Me, I'm just Loafing! :-)