Well fata that. I spent almost half an hour typing in my pick and Shaw crapped out on me and I lost the whole post. Since I've had the flu for the last day, i'll come back to this another time. Fkkkkkkk...
Well fata that. I spent almost half an hour typing in my pick and Shaw crapped out on me and I lost the whole post. Since I've had the flu for the last day, i'll come back to this another time. Fkkkkkkk...
Derek Jacobi as Claudius, Sian Phillips as the evil manipulator Livia, John Hurt as Caligula, and very early roles for Patrick Stewart and John Rhys-Davies as Roman centurions.
Great acting, yada yada. I hope PBS runs this again soon.
Sorry, I hadn't been on for the last day, and I didn't know about the change to 10 hours.
Why are you apolgizing, you made you pick within 3 hours
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
The Infomercial Kings are proud to select in the category of Soaps - Melrose Place
Melrose Place is an American primetime soap opera that ran between 1992 and 1999, created by Darren Star for the FOX network and executive produced by Aaron Spelling for Spelling Television. It is the second series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise, and is set in a small apartment courtyard complex in the West Hollywood district of Los Angeles, where several young individuals reside, each with their own dreams and drives
I am a lawyer, I own a bowling alley. Two separate things.
I've never really been a "soap" fan, so I'm going to go for a show on the serial side of the Soap Opera/Serial category.
For my next pick, Frozen TV Dinner chooses in the Soap Opera/Serial category, from Worldwide Pants, Viacom Productions and the NBC television network: Ed.
Debuting in the year 2000 on NBC, Ed was originally commissioned by CBS as part of David Letterman's series development deal that he received when he jumped from NBC in 1993. Ed was created, written and produced by Letterman's long-time Late Show producer Rob Burnett.
The premise was strange, yet simple: Ed Stevens (Tom Cavanagh) was a lawyer at a high powered New York City law firm until he was fired one day for misplacing a comma in a contract, which cost the firm over a million dollars. Because he was fired, Ed went home early that day and found his wife in bed with a mailman (not their mailman, just a mailman). With his life in a downward spiral, Ed found himself looking through his old high school yearbook, where he saw the picture of the prettiest girl in school, Carol Vessey (Julie Bowen). On a strange impulse, Ed decided to leave New York and return to his home town of Stuckeyville, Ohio and track down Carol (even though they never had any previous relationship in school). Carol was still the prettiest girl in school, only now she was a teacher. After Ed moves back to Stuckeyville, he decides to buy the local bowling alley, in which he opens a small law firm.
All of these events took place in the pilot episode that was originally shot, however, most of the pilot ended up on the cutting room floor, and the entire premise was summarized in the prologue to the first episode that actually aired. It seems like a "previously on", but there was no previous episode.
The series did frequently feature Ed in his role of local lawyer, but it was primarily a character drama (with plenty of comedy) focused on the off-again, off-again, really off-again, and every once in a while on-again romance between Ed and Carol. Also featured prominently on the show were Ed's best friend since childhood, Mike, and his wife Nancy; Carol's best friend and fellow teacher, Molly; Ed's bowling alley employees, Phil and Shirley; and the only other character to appear in every one of the series' 83 episodes, Warren, a high school loser with a hopeless crush on Miss Vessey (almost as hopeless as Ed's own crush). Warren was played by Justin "I'm a Mac" Long.
Throughout the run of the series, Ed and Carol were kept apart by one or the other's romantic entanglements, finally getting together in the fourth and final season.
Although never a huge hit, Ed did have a strong following, who did follow it as NBC shuffled it around its schedule. It seemed to always be on the verge of cancellation, so it's remarkable that it actually lasted four seasons and 83 episodes.
Ed was by no means a pure "soap", but it didn't avoid "soapy" situations, including cheating spouses, canceled engagements, returning cheating spouses, and outlandish "romantic" gestures.
Here is the opening scene that compressed the pilot episode to a 3 minute overview...
One of the recurring bits on the show were Ed and Mike's "Ten dollar bets", where one would challenge the other to do something embarrassing for $10.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
Exp:
The Couch Potatoes choose from the Comedy Opencategory....
Rowan & Martin's Laugh - In.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was one of TV's classics, one of those rare programs which was not only an overnight sensation, but was highly innovative, created a raft of new stars, and started trends in comedy which other programs would follow. Laugh-In crystallized a kind of contemporary, fast-paced, unstructured comedy "happening" that was exactly what an agitated America wanted in 1968.
Laugh-In was first seen as a one-time special on September 9, 1967. It was such an enormous hit that it inevitably led to a series. Its lightning-fast pace took full advantage of the technical capabilities of television and video tape. Blackouts, sketches, one-liners, and cameo appearances by famous show- business celebrities and even national politicians were all edited into a frenetic whole. The regular cast was large and the turnover high, and of the 40 regulars who appeared in the series only four were in it from beginning to end, the two hosts, announcer Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi.
The essence of Laugh-In was shtick, a comic routine or trademark repeated over and over until it was closely associated with a performer. People love it, come to expect it, and talk about it the next morning after the show. All great comedians have at least one, but what was remarkable about Laugh-In was that it developed a whole repertore of sight gags and catchphrases using little-known talent exclusively (though some of them became quite famous later). Among the favorites: Arte Johnson as the German Soldier, peering out from behind a potted palm murmering, "Verrry interesting!"; Ruth Buzzi as Gladys, the little old lady with the hand bag, forever whacking the equally decrepit Tyrone who snuggled up beside her on a park bench; Lily Tomlin as the sarcastic, nasal telephone operator named Ernestine; Gary Owens as the outrageously overmodulated announcer, facing the microphone, hand cupped over ear; Alan Sues as the grinning moron of a sports announcer; Goldie Hawn, as the giggling dumb blonde; Lily Tomlin as Edith Anne, a child philosopher whose catchphrase was "and that's the truth," and so on.
Goldie Hawn & Co.
Laugh in Clips
Sock It To Me
Beatles 1970_Ringo in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
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Last edited by Dion; 01-29-2009 at 12:42 AM.
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Great pick Dion - I almost took it myself (typed the entry up 3x in fact!) but lost it everytime before I could post....clearly this was because it was meant for you!
An awesome choice that was shockingly still available at this point in the draft when you consider it was one of the forerunners to shows like SNL.
With our next selection team Jumped the Shark is pleased to welcome in the category of Reality ongoing:
In the 30-minute program, Cabbie Unlimited blends the most exciting and comedic moments from the popular Cabbie on the Street series, with a vast array of clips previously unseen. The show breaks down into two main sections "From The Vault" and "100% Fresh".
Originally an intern at The Score, Richards hosted five-minute segments called Cabbie on the Street from 2001-02 and again since 2005. The segments generally consist of Richards surprising sports figures with unorthodox questions all over North America. For example, at one of National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern's press conferences, Richards asked if Stern always wins his fantasy basketball pools. In another segment, he was ejected from the Toronto Raptors' locker room after teaching the famously stoic Chris Bosh a "secret handshake" that ended with Richards bear-hugging the unamused basketball player. He could be the only person to drink from the Stanley Cup (hockey) and hold the Larry O'Brien trophy (basketball) in the same week. New segments of Cabbie on the Street run during the 10 p.m. ET edition of The Score Tonight on Wednesdays.
If it doesn't qualify, I'll need a definition of what does qualify under "Serial".
To me, it's a show that has an ongoing storyline that continues and evolves over the life of the series. If, when watching a rerun, you have to spend the first couple of minutes of an episode trying to figure out where it fits in the continuity, it's a serial show. Using that definition, I felt that Ed qualified.
Heck, "Ed" even used some of the most cliched soap opera tricks to keep Ed and Carol apart, including: the returning ex-wife who wants to give it one more try; at least one called off engagement; and one of them breaking off a relationship to be with the other one, only to have the other one start dating someone new.
If you had to imagine a soap opera produced by David Letterman, Ed is probably pretty close to what you'd expect.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
Ok. Ed is fine as a serial. I was thinking about it more as a drama or comedy but it does have the continuity factor from episode to episode and even year to year.
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
Where's The Remote? are pleased to select in the Game Show category,
Not a big Game Show fan but I watched this one a few times just because Anne Robinson was so caustic and downright creepy at times. Another evil Brit! Cue evil laughter.....
wiki:
The Weakest Link (often simply called Weakest Link) is a popular television quiz show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000. The original British version of the show airs around the world on BBC Entertainment and BBC America. The format has been licensed across the world, with many countries producing their own series of The Weakest Link. Unless otherwise noted, all foreign titles translate to (The) Weakest Link. As with the original British version, all of the hosts wear black clothing (or sometimes dark colours with black). Most versions also have disciplinarian female hosts, again similar to the British original.
Not all the international versions share the title The Weakest Link. The format is distributed by BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC. Australia was the first country to adapt the BBC show, and versions have also been produced in Azerbaijan, Belgium, Chile, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Panama, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Serbia, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States of America.
The Link franchise is the second most popular international franchise, behind only the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise, which also originated in the United Kingdom.[1]
WWE (WWF at the time) on Weakest Link
Star Trek Weakest Link
British Celebrity edition (Never heard of any of them!)
The show centered around Los Angeles County fire station #51 and Rampart Hospital and the daily goings on of the paramedics, firefighters and medical staff that worked at the two locales. As a young kid, I was pretty enamored with emergency vehicles, car accidents (this was before I realized people actually die in them) and disasters of all sorts! This show was like my five year old heroin!
I'll never forget Johnny Gage, Roy DeSoto and Chet Kelly!
Drama!
Suspense!
Danger!
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