Familiar with Neil Patrick Harris? He played Doogie Howser, was in the Harold and Khumar movies, then went on to star in How I Met Your Mother. Well, as it turns out, he was in another TV series that ran for 22 episodes, one you’ve likely never seen or heard of. The series was called Stark Raving Mad.
Two cool things about the clip that follows. First, it shows off Neil Patrick Harris’s comedy chops. He truly is gifted. And it also shows off Harris’s costar in the series, an actor who came from his own ensemble series and who went on to huge success after Stark Raving Mad. Of course, I’m talking about…well…why don’t you just watch and see for yourself. Enjoy!
Posted by Dave Mark on Dec 31, 2009 in TV, humor, video
This is undoubtedly the worst SNL skit I’ve ever seen. So why do I watch it over and over again? There’s just something awesome about this. See what you think (sorry about the ad, not sure how to get rid of that)…
This one is for my pal, David Sobsey. Get better quick, David! For you other folks, this is the very first Dean Martin Comedy Roast. Basically, it’s a collection of sharp-witted comedians, and other famous folk, all poking bristly fun at the roastee, in this case, Johnny Carson. A collection of comedy pioneers, the start of a longstanding tradition…
Back in late 1967, British TV star Patrick McGoohen co-created a brilliant, allegorical, fantasy TV series called The Prisoner. In a nutshell, The Prisoner revolved around a man who was being held against his will in a small town where nothing was as it seemed and no one could escape. When he did manage to leave the town, these weird giant balls would go out and retrieve him. Only 17 episodes of The Prisoner were made, but it developed a huge cult following.
Here’s the opening sequence, which tells the story of his resigning his secret-agent-like job and then being taken…
Now AMC has remade The Prisoner. I sure hope it’s even remotely close to as good as the original. It looks good so far, and co-stars the brilliant Ian McKellen, widely known for his role as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. From what I can tell, they’ve only made 6 episodes. Hopefully, this will turn into something worth extending.
Below is the trailer for the new version of The Prisoner. Enjoy…
A few days ago, I posted a scene from one of the greatest movies ever made, Citizen Kane. My brother, Stu, posted comments on that post referring to a comic bit between two guys discussing the movie. He gave me all kinds of hints, I did not get it the reference. I figured he was referring to some obscure movie. Turns out, he was referring to a sketch by The Kids in the Hall, one of my all time favorite comedy ensembles. And I know and love this sketch. My head hangs low.
Now Stu did post this on his blog, and normally I would never duplicate one of Stu’s posts, but I just love Kids in the Hall so much, I couldn’t resist sharing this with you. Sorry for the direct copy, Stu!
Posted by Dave Mark on Oct 28, 2009 in Education, TV
I was in Pittsburgh recently and had a chance to swing by WQED, the Pittsburgh television station where Mr. Rogers created his masterpiece of a television program from 1966 until his death in 2003. In front of WQED, there’s a statue erected in Fred Rogers’ memory. I think it is beautiful. I took this picture with my iPhone. Take a look:
This is kind of amazing to me. Microsoft made a deal with Fox to create a special “live” version of Family Guy that would air in prime time, hosted by the creators of the show, Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein. Consisting of typical Family Guy material, the special was to be part of Microsoft’s Windows 7 rollout, weaving highlights of Windows 7 in amongst the hilarity.
I can only imagine the shock and dismay on the Microsoft Exec’s faces when someone suggested that they actually watch a bit of Family Guy, just to make sure they were all on board with this hip thing the kids are all into. Hah!!!
According to Variety, “We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of ‘Family Guy,’ but after reviewing an early version of the variety show, it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand,” said a Microsoft spokeswoman. “We continue to have a good partnership with Fox, Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein and are working with them in other areas. We continue to believe in the value of brand integrations and partnerships between brands, media companies and talent.”
Um, I suspect what really happened was that the lower level marketing folks love the show and thought it would give Windows 7 a cool, hard edge. But then mom and dad found out what the show is really about when execs attended a screening and were, to put it mildly, dismayed by what they saw: “typical ‘Family Guy’-style jokes, including riffs on deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.”
An amazing gaffe. The show will go on, and I suspect there is a lot of scrambling right now to find another sponsor less worried about offending people and more interested in that huge ‘Family Guy’ audience.
Drew Olanoff is a very insightful fellow. He grabbed the twitter name @drew before anyone else could. He’s also unlucky. He has stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma.
To help raise money for the fight against cancer, Drew decided to auction off his Twitter name and donate the proceeds to the LIVESTRONG Foundation, which helped him in many ways. He expected to pick up maybe $10,000 or so.
Enter Drew Carey.
DrewC, who tweets under the name DrewFromTV, agreed to donate $25,000 for the name. But he didn’t stop there. According to CNN, Carey said, “I was in such a good mood that I raised it to $100,000.”
Even better, Drew raised his bid to a cool million, if DrewFromTV gets a million followers by December 31st.
So follow DrewFromTV and help raise $1,000,000 for the LIVESTRONG Foundation.
From Woz, this is pretty good. Michel Lauzier, billed as the master of the unusual, plays Mozert’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, 1st movement, on a pair of specially tricked-out roller blades…
