Did Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson Rip Off Grant Naylor?
In consideration of British comedy history, here are two video clips. The first clip is from “The End,” the first episode of Red Dwarf, written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor and produced in 1987: The...
View ArticleBSG “Razor”: Discouraging Signs
Heather Havrilesky: “‘Razor’ is neither the fascinating, heart-pounding ‘Battlestar’ of our fondest memories nor the cheesy, ‘All Along the Watchtower’-lyrics-spewing ‘Battlestar’ of our worst...
View ArticleUnintentionally Hilarious BBC Pilot
And here’s Part 2. Mainly for Men was a disastrous 1969 pilot in which the BBC attempted to get in touch with “what men wanted” by filming this magazine show. The result involved awkward attempts at...
View Article“Jesus Came First!”
Sherri Shepherd of The View has uttered, in all seriousness, that “Jesus came first.” Shepherd seems to believe that, in the great collective whole of human existence, there was no religion before...
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Hillary’s Tears, Our Tears
Lorrie Moore’s naive essay on Hillary Clinton not only demonstrates the unspoken precept that skilled fiction writers are sometimes remarkably simplistic when they write about politics, but deploys the...
View ArticleThe Early Films of Jim Henson
Before the days of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, Jim Henson was an independent filmmaker in New York, making experimental films between commercial gigs. It was the mid-sixties. According to John...
View ArticleIn Praise of “Peep Show”
In the past two weeks, I have wolfed down all five seasons of Peep Show, a dark and frequently hilarious British television series written by Jess Armstrong and Sam Bain (with additional material from...
View ArticleOliver Reed vs. Shelley Winters
They certainly don’t make television like this anymore. Too bad.
View ArticleGood Greif
In a predictable piece of contrarianism, n+1 manboy Mark Greif completely misses the point of Mad Men. Calling the famed television show “an unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better,”...
View ArticleKeep Your Head Above Water
Here are a few interesting side notes. The above video clip wasn’t the only embarrassing flub that Sylvia Browne made on The Montel Williams Show. She managed to get ITV2 in trouble when Browne...
View ArticleSkipping the Super Bowl
Several individuals have reminded me that today is the Super Bowl. A thuggish “working-class” team will be duking it out with a Red State team. Bruce Springsteen has either been enlisted for a halftime...
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The Bat Segundo Show: Kathleen Collins
Kathleen Collins appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #290. Kathleen Collins is most recently the author of Watching What We Eat. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contending with traumatic cooking show...
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The Bat Segundo Show: Dick Cavett
Dick Cavett appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #305. Dick Cavett’s column, “Talk Show,” regularly appears at the New York Times. (PROGRAM NOTE: During the course of our conversation, a “Professor Robert...
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