In honor of Thanksgiving, I've been wracking my brain all week to try and come up with three Thanksgiving pics. It has been very trying! Thanksgiving is not that popular when it comes to film, literature, and television. But I have come up with three I hope you all will appreciate. This is it for two weeks so I want to wish you all a delightful turkey coma come Thursday!
Film: Babette's Feast
Yes, I know there are movies with actual Thanksgiving scenes. Yes, I know this film has absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving. Heck, it's not even an American film. Get over it. I chose Babette's Feast for one reason: the food. Babette's Feast is actually a Danish film from 1987. Two old spinsters live on a remote island with several other families, most of whom practice a very strict religion of abstention, which the spinsters' father preached while still alive. Babette is found and taken in by the sisters; she becomes their cook/maid/every-woman. For their father's 100th birthday celebration, the two sisters allow Babette to cook a special meal. Having been a famous chef in Paris (not that anyone knows this), Babette's meal is decadent and indecent by the village's standpoint. However, they all love the meal. Although Chocolate follows much the same storyline, Babette's Feast came first and focuses more on the food than the villagers' lives. To prep you for the dinner table, watch Babette's Feast as it will make your mouth water.
Television: Friends
More than any other show, Friends did a great Thanksgiving episode. My personal favorites are "The One With the Thanksgiving Flashbacks" from Season 5, "The One Where Ross Got High" from Season 6, and "The One With the Rumor" from Season 8. Since this is Monica's favorite holiday, it makes sense that these three episodes have a place on my list this week.
Honorable Mention: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Need I say more????
Literature: Of Plymouth Plantation
Sorry folks, I couldn't help it! If you want to know about the first Thanksgiving, go back to the man who experienced it: William Bradford. Bradford's diary is one of the few "real" tellings of the fateful day when the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag met in harmony to eat turkey. Um, wait. That wasn't what actually happened! The Pilgrims wanted to celebrate their tenuous survival with a feast. The Wampanoag leader, Massasoit, showed up to celebrate with 90 of his men. As was the Wampanoag custom, the Pilgrims had to serve all of the Natives. Luckily, there were three days of food, fun, and contests, several of which were hunting contests. Oh, and the women didn't really participate; they just cooked and served. Typical.
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34 comments:
Are you going to Aunt D's for Thanksgiving?
So, what did you think of this season's premiere of Project Runway? I love the show but Heidi Klum is starting to get on my nerves. She sounded like a member of Hitler's youth movement several times this week. It made me "twitchy." Tim Gunn is so cool and so talented. He's everything I think of when I think "mentor."
Have a wonderful Turkey day! Give my neice & nephew lots of hugs & kisses from me! XOXO
Before I start, here are two links to the Post Gazette about the new Kevin Smith film as well as an overview of Pittsburgh's recent surge in film projects: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07321/834730-254.stm
And here is one with a little more about the film itself:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07320/834484-100.stm
Okay, so Friends...tisk, tisk, tisk, the old NBC Thursday night lineup lives on as a zombie in syndication right next to Seinfeld and those other shows no one remembers but its something best left in the trash heap that was the late 90's mainstream. Dull sweet Jeniffer Aniston is the prefrect nearly forgotten icon for those wasteful khaki filled days that I for one am desperate to forget, not that we remembered them when they were happening. If Friends were a paint color it would be beige. This show has aged like a gallon of milk left on the surface of the sun.
Nothing really to comment on, just trying to figure out this whole bloggint-comment thing. I had to create yet another account to do it. I also enjoy the Friends Thanksgiving episodes. See you tomorrow!
Jeeze, harsh on the Must-See TV line up, revpasternack. (There's a reason why Seinfeld and Friends were the anchors of the otherwise forgettable fill-ins on that night.)
Friends had funny moments, mostly involving Chandler, or Phoebe. The ultimate episode is the "They don't know that we know they know" episode. The alternate universe one was good too. I think the middle episodes were way better than the beginning or ending ones, but I digress.
Seinfeld is nothing if not memorable. "The sea was angry that day my friends . . like and old man trying to return soup at a deli." Just look at Cafe Press for the numerous user-created designs featuring catchphrases, etc that people still find funny. (Vandelay Industries, Importers of Fine Latex.)
Seinfeld had a funny Thanksgiving episode too - where Mr. Pitt wants to hold the Woody Woodpecker balloon's tether. Zaniness ensues. But the Friends eps were more about the meal, family, etc.
Heather, Babette's Feast definitely made me hungry.
For Valerie: Yep, heading to PA tomorrow to fill up with wonderful food and, the best part ever, gingerbread men!!!! I will certainly pass around your hugs and kisses. I love Tim Gunn. I want to just hang out with him! And Heidi Klum needs to find a new catchphrase or at least do something more interesting than model whomever she is wearing. I haven't figured out my season favorite yet. I am really excited about all the talent this season. I think it's going to be a good one!
For Matt and Krista: I'm letting you two dual this one out. I loved both Friends and Seinfeld in the 90s. Now, I pick and choose which Friends eps to watch and which not to. Likewise with Seinfeld. I do have to say, though, that for some reason Seinfeld has not aged as well for me as Friends has. I find many eps of Friends still funny. (Yes, usually ones with Chandler or Phoebe.) It's not the same with Seinfeld. In fact, I rarely watch an ep any more because I don't find it funny any more. I wonder why that is? How is it that some shows work over time and others don't?
Re: Seinfeld vs. Friends: I'm just the opposite. To me, Seinfeld becomes funnier w/ age yet I find Ross whiny and Chandler obnoxious. So many favorite Seinfeld moments -- the puffy shirt, the Chinese restaurant, close talker, Puddy at the Devils hockey game (he's a face painter), sponge worthy, the TV in the parking garage, the soup nazi, the stolen TV Guide, etc. Ask Steve what he thinks. Friends vs. Seinfeld.
I think this is also the question of what you think of the times that produced those two shows. Both shows are so deeply imbued with the ethos of the times that created them. I hated the late 90s when I lived through them, and I have not felt at all nostalgic for them in the 10 years since. I remember stepping off of the train in Philadelphia on the last Wednesday of 1999 and seeing Jeniffer Aniston staring back at me from the cover of Philadelphia Weekly with the huge letters next to her "The Nothing Special Decade: The 90s What the Hell Were We Thinking?" Both shows are important for understanding the times, but to watch them now... I have the same debate with a baby boomer who is a fellow Woody Allen fan. As someone born in the year it came out, I cannot stand Annie Hall. I love Woody but that film is utterly unwatchable because it just oozes with the zeitgeist of the 70s which are the reasons why the 80s underground culture that I love and adore happened. Furthemore, Annie Hall like Friends and Seinfeld feature utterly unlikable people embracing empty, uncompassionate irony. In those shows everyone is a loser, everyone has the right to whine about it, everyone is a comodity for our enjoyment, everyone is just hanging out with no concern what so ever for the outside world, everyone is an object of scorn. Yuck.
PS Does this mean that Heather has given up on arguing me? Am I that utterly incouragable?
For both shows, only certain episodes hold up well now. It's all about the writing, isn't it? (Solidarity, striking writers!!)
Seinfeld characters were meant to be narcissistic idiots. Friends characters were supposed to be likeable, at least in their relationships with each other, I think.
But characters don't have to be likeable for the show to be funny. (Hello, Arrested Development? The funniest show EVER!)
Does anyone watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? It features 4 narcissistic assholes as well (actually 5 now that Danny Devito joined), but it's hilarious.
Indeed the utterly unlikable can be funny (Married with Children, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, etc.) but the characters on both of these shows had me rooting for the ebola virus.
Word on the striking writers, both for the fact that everyone deserves to get paid well, and its bumming out some of my students who really need to be bummed out.
Wow, I missed all of this last week because my Mac with this page bookmarked decided to die!
I was never a big fan of either Friends or Seinfeld, but I've seen episodes of both and like both shows. However, if you want to see the attitude that gave birth to Seinfeld, check out any season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. A seriously funny show. I would bet that Seinfeld will age better than Friends too.
As for Thanksgiving movies, my favorite has always been "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" with John Candy and Steve Martin. Classic John Hughes Midwest fun from the late '80s. For more offbeat Thanksgiving, try "The Ice Storm" or "Pieces of April."
Finally, "Buffy" has an excellent Thanksgiving episode. I'm a little fuzzy, but I think it's during their freshman year of college.
Sorry folks, I spent the entire Thanksgiving break away from any computer.
Matt, you have a good point about the 90s, at least the early 90s. (The late 90s gave birth to Buffy so I won't stomp on the entire decade.)
I'm not sure why I don't like Seinfeld any more. I watched religiously when it was on. There is something about the characters that just irritate me now. I can't even pinpoint what irritates me, perhaps it is just the lack of caring. Maybe I'm getting sappy in my old(er) age. (Alison still seems shocked that I liked "The Holiday.") Maybe I am just losing my edge when it come to pop culture. After all, I stand by my pick of Friends. I think there are some very funny eps out there.
Yep, the Buffy Thanksgiving ep was the first year of college. Anya liked watching Xander dig in that one. I was trying to explain the ep to someone over Thanksgiving. Like most eps of Buffy, it apparently loses something in description.
Moxiecat: Props on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles that movie works on multiple levels as both gross-out comedy ("Where is your other hand") and touching comedic portrait of two physically and metaphysically lost individuals. Maybe I should start my own blog, or better yet Heather should do a John Candy special...I miss him a lot and if it wasn't 2 AM I would be digging out my VHS copies of Planes... and Only the Lonely to have a mini-film fest.
Heather: The late 90s were far worse than the early 90s. There was a week or two there in '94 that the culture industry stopped replicating itself and just relased things that had artistic merrit. This was especially the case in music. The rest of the decade had its brilliant jems (Welcome to the Doll House, Raygun, Radiohead's OK Computer, etc.) but it all just got too happy and lethargic and khaki for me. And yes their lack of caring is just one of the many annoying characteristics of the Seinfeld crew.
The lack of caring sort of became the whole point of the Seinfeld crew. Did you see the finale? It was all about how ridiculous the lack of caring had become in the run of the show.
Personally, I'm grateful to Seinfeld for breaking the deathgrips of the all-too-familiar, sickly sweet family-type sitcom half-hour show through the 80's (yes there were exceptions).
You know, I didn't even particularly watch it when it ran originally. Maybe just the last 2 years or so. I've become much more familiar with it in reruns.
Yes Yes Yes! on Planes, Trains and Automobiles , The Ice Storm, and Pieces of April. (Ahh, Katie Holmes, once a promising starlet, now, in Scientology hell.)
Will people throw cyber-tomatoes at me if I mention the Felicity Thanksgiving episodes?
The Buffy ep involves a Native American curse, and a stealthy guest spot by Angel, which prompts a cross-over.
I did see the lame end of Seinfeld, we saw it in reruns because of a former roomate who monopolized the TV whenever he could and filled our appartment with lame syndicated sitcoms. There is nothing like coming home after a hard day at work to back to back episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun followed by the Drew Carey Show and Seinfeld, its amazing I got through that living arangement without ever taking a bath with the toaster. Even if their lack of caring was the point (or at least if they became self-aware of the shows central gimic/flaw) it still did not make Seinfeld even remotely funny, or make the characters even remotely compelling. Danny Devito makes rotten work because his stature and his characterizations reveal some frailty and sympathetic conniving charm. He also knows how to act, and is why he has stuck around for so long. This also explains why Jerry is the only one able to do anything even remotely successful since the show, and that thing turned out to be an animated film for pre-teens who couldn't get Hanna Montana tickets. Seinfeld was a gimic and a few catch phrases repeated over and over and over again ad nauseum, if you watch Seinfeld carefully the actors themselves look bored with whats happening on the screen. When they quit they revealed this to the world, as if there was anyone left who didn't already figure it out.
And didn't Rosanne, Married With Children, and The Simpsons among others already kill off the sickning sweetness of the Cosby Show early in the 90s long before Seinfeld?
Oooh..I meant to say "Cosby Show Era" in that last post.
PS Heather does need to say more about Macy's.
What is the best float?
Critics and audiences and various academies and several other commenters here would beg to differ that Seinfeld isn't "remotely funny." There's a difference between using catchphrases for an easy joke, and creating the catchphrases to begin with. As for the rest of the cast, I'd say Jason Alexander is actually the best actor, and has had success on stage and screen before and after the show. Didn't Louis-Dreyfus recently win an award for her current show?
The Simpsons debuted in 1989, the same year as Seinfeld. Married with Children came in 1987 and Roseanne the following year - but all 3 of those examples revolve around a "nuclear" family, even if not of the sweet variety (which wasn't always true for any of them).
Personally, only Cheers, MASH, and Seinfeld generally stand up today as still funny, non-family-centered comedies. Not every ep or every season, of course. I have a soft spot for Three's Company too.
And here let me jump in in defense of the 90s. These are only the mainstream "good" things that come to mind: Beck, Radiohead, Tool, grunge and alt rock saved rock from hair bands, Achtung Baby, Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks, the Star Treks, X Files, The Piano, Schindler's List, Silence of the Lambs, Thelma&Louise, English Patient (threw that in for us, Jennica!), Fargo and Big Lebowski, Misery, The Professional, Sling Blade, Gilbert Grape, Babe, Boyz n the Hood, Clueless, Office Space, anything with Daniel Day Lewis, plus flicks from Tarantino, Burton, Kevin Smith.
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie!! OK, let's call the decade a wash.
Yes, I LOVE the Felicity Thanksgiving episodes--particularly the first one! Forgot about that. The episode that follows that where they're taking finals and studying in the library is good too. Ahh...I just loved that first season of Felicity.
I can beat you on the guilty pleasure thing though, by mentioning that there was probably a Thanksgiving episode for every one of 90210's 10 seasons! (For some reason, no one ever spent the holiday with their real families--they were always at the Walsh house!) And no, I make no apologies anymore for my 90210 watching.
Katie Holmes will ALWAYS be little Joey Potter to me! Come on, roll your eyes again, Katie...
Blech, 90210. Notice I left it off my oh-so-comprehensive list of good things from the 90s!
I'm not arguing that. :-) Like I said, it's a guilty pleasure--we all have them!
However, it's pretty much accepted that 90210 is important culturally to the 1990s. There really weren't any dramatic shows about teenagers and their problems prior to 1990. (Remember, in the beginning it was much more of a family drama than a soap.) And you can't beat 90210 for covering a range of '90s fashion styles during its 10 years!
There probably would not have been shows like Dawson's Creek, Buffy, or the whole WB network without the popularity of 90210. So like it or hate it...it had a huge impact on TV.
I mean, where would we be today without shows like "Tori and Dean: Inn Love"? :-)
Yeah, I know it was influential.
But hey, speaking of teen dramas, I forgot My So-Called Life on my list.
And The Wonder Years! Although it started in the 80s.
My So-Called Life is a good addition. Don't know about Wonder Years. I think it ran '88-93? I guess I associate it more with the '80s because the first couple years were when I watched it every week. The later seasons, not as much.
However, if you wanted to throw it into the '90s, you could also add Sex and the City (1998) and the Sopranos (1999).
While yes there is a difference between creating and just using catchphrases, that still does not mean they have merrit. This is afterall what the culture industry does, whether it be sitcoms or advertising. The merit lies in the strenth of the other writing around the catch phrase. After all this is why "where's the beef" and "Dude, you're getting a Dell" have not entered the panthion of great American sound bytes like "this is a day that will live in infamy" or "we hold these truths to be self evident." Things get repeated, people learn to want them (read Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" for an explanation of how this happens cus this is a small window and my fingers are tired). This why radio has payola and how Dick Clark amassed a tidy fortune spinning records he had a vested interest in.
Also, the fact that you did not name the things that Alexander or Louis-Dreyfus did I think kind of proves my point about their individual merits. A scan of both of their IMDB profiles reveals a slew of dead end guest spots. And that unnamed series she is now doing, and yes she won an Emmy but so have Patricia Wettig, Debra Messing and Selia Ward (and I owe a dinner to anyone who can tell me who they all are without having to look it up). Alexander was the voice of Duckman and the placeholder for Nathan Lane's part in the movie adaptation of Love, Valour, Compassion. Hardly does that a career make.
The 90's were not irredimable, however the pockets of brilliance were just that pockets, and surrounded by a bunch of instantly forgettable things. The pockets redeem, the rest can be found in any used record/video store in the $1.00 bin. Back when Dennis Miller was good (and I feel naughty typing that on a computer owned by his alma madre) he said, "For every Michaelangelo's David there was probably a bunch of other 'naked guy leaning to the left' statues. We idealize the past in comparison with the crap we have now because the crap then has been forgotten."
The other thing that must be said, at least as far as music and film are concerned, the cool 90's mainstream consisted of the remnants and the influence of the 80's rebellious underground. Grunge would not have happened without bands like The Pixies, Husker Du, and The Replacements and many others. The same thing is happening to the 90s as the 00s have rewriten the previous decade. Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is being heralded as the most influential records of the decade, and in fact The Decemberists, Feist, and many others owe that band dinner, yet I have yet to meet someone who bought that album when it came out in 1998.
Mostly though I will remember the 90s as the time when special became ordinary and its was normal to be a freak, which made both things neither particularly special or freaky.
BTW I think My So Called Life finally made it to DVD or at least it made it to the CMJ holiday gift guide. And I was a total sucker for both Three's Company and The Wonder Years.
I really don't care about either Alexander or Louis-Dreyfus. I just meant that they have done more than Jerry Seinfeld both before and after the show. Alexander has become too Disneyfied for me to have seen anything he was in. Patricia Wettig was on thirtysomething, Debra Messing on Will & Grace, and Sela Ward is from House, The Fugitive, and Sisters (I think). Didn't look it up and not sure what they won their awards for though. Many actors only have one bit of success - that doesn't mean their brief success was bad.
Aren't all decades' pop culture pretty much crap with pockets of brilliance? It's pretty bad right now, and the 70s and 80s don't have much to crow about either. Can it get any worse than 2 and a half men and dancing with the stars?
I would argue that Seinfeld's catchphrases were the result of good writing. For example, I just saw the yadda, yadda, yadda episode. Now, yes, that can be an annoying catchphrase (I'm not sure what, exactly, it is telling me to buy, though) and in this case it did exist before Seinfeld got his hands on it. But in the context of that episode, it was funny - and completely tied to the storyline. I'm not aware of that phrase being used in any other subsequest (or previous) Seinfeld episode. It was only in that episode, which also included funny sub-plots about Jerry's dentist converting to Judaism, Jerry being an "anti-dentite", Kramer and dwarf friend Mickey almost wearing matching shirts on a double date and not being able to decide who gets which girl, Debra Messing guests as a 2-time divorcee whose adoption chances are ruined by Elaine and who is also a bigot and anti-dentite. And my favorite scene takes place in a Catholic confessional. All this in addition to George's girlfriend's yadda yadda thing.
Dennis Miller is currently cuckoo-bananas. WTF happened to him?
Debra Messing is easy--besides W&G, she's also been in a bunch of movies. Patricia Wettig is currently on Brothers and Sisters and previously Thirtysomething (also had a recurring role on Alias). Sela Ward was on Once and Again and has been in some flicks too. Sadly, I did not have to look any of that up. :-)
Julia L-D started on SNL. Her show, which has been on for a few years now (nothing to sneeze at) is called the New Adventures of Old Christine. She has also been in a few movies. I remember her also being in a horrible sitcom in the '80s with Courtney Thorne-Smith about a daycare agency! (Anyone remember that? I think it was called Day By Day or something like that.)
Jason Alexander has had a few bad sitcoms. The one I can remember fairly recently was called Listen Up. However, I believe he also has had some success on stage, which we don't hear as much about. In the mid-90s, he played the Dick Van Dyke part in a TV version of Bye Bye Birdie, and he was pretty good. He's always very entertaining when he's on Bill Maher's panel.
Yes, I agree--not every actor has sustained success. But most are happy to just once reach the type of success that Seinfeld had. That show has made Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David so rich that they don't HAVE to do anything anymore--which is why Seinfeld isn't around much and why Larry David has a show that he 100% controls on HBO. Some actors are just happy to work and have a stable job--this is why many actors just stay on long-running soaps.
Dennis Miller, oy. I used to LOVE him when I first started watching SNL in the late '80s and he did Weekend Update. I believe 9/11 is what happened to him--he became a "homeland security at any cost" type of person.
Krista, I hate to guess where you picked up the phrase "cuckoo-bananas" but I bet I know! (It fits with a discussion about TV anyway. :-)
revpasternack owes us both dinner!
I think I've heard the phrase cockoo-bananas before DTNG - but I could just be deluding myself.
Yes, 9/11 happened to Dennis Miller, but it happened to all of us. We didn't all become raving Muslim-hating, piddling-our-pants lunatics.
Krista and Moxiecat, if we ever meet I will buy you dinner, but be kind and stick to the house wine. That said, my point was to say how awards are often not as prestigious as they seem to be. Just check out the list of Best Picture Oscars if you don't believe me. That said, are you proud or ashamed that you know who those people are? I pulled them from a random selection of emmy winners, but you folks reached a whole new level of geekdom! Good luck with that.:)
I think it started a bit before 9/11 with Dennis Miller. The last season of his HBO show was HORRIFYING. I remember turning him off for good when he said he wanted Bush to win in 2000 just to see what would happen to the country without any checks and ballances in our government. He was cancelled two or three episodes later. And like a lot of semi-wacky people he became completely wacky after 9/11. And Kristia you are right, as the late great Susan Sontag said so brilliantly after 9/11, "lets be united, but let's not do anything stupid together." I did a bit of paraphrasing there. At the time people were ready to put her in gitmo, but now its probably the most sensible soundbyte of the decade. Now Miller is hosting some kind of sports talk show on VS (aka. the network that's slowly killing the NHL). We watched the end of a game the other night and had a panic moment because his show was starting and we couldn't find the remote. I was seriously considering throwing myself on the TV like a soldier dives on a live grenade to save their comrades. Luckly, we found it and muted the TV before he started talking.
Yadda, yadda, yadda has been a part of the NYC lexicon since forever (though I doubt any self-respecting New Yorkers say it now). I remember being highly offended using my native tongue only to have people say to me, "Wow, you love Seinfeld too!" I died a little inside each time someone said that to me.
Indeed, every decade is a pocket of goodies and a sack of manure. That said, Krista, if you honestly believe that it can get no worse than Two and a Half Men and Dancing With the Stars you have no respect for the depths to which mainstream culture can sink (and indeed has sunk before).
American Idol is a lower point for me personally than Dancing with the Stars. I can't even watch American Idol and can't imagine what so many people see in it.
I watched Will and Grace on occasion, so Debra Messing wasn't hard. I watched Alias and now watch Brothers and Sisters so I knew Wettig too. I've never really watched any show that Sela Ward was in, but I knew who she was. I'm not embarrassed by knowing who they are. And I think I crossed into nerd territory somewhere in 1988 when I started watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation." I've accepted it!
I freely admit that I watch many TV shows--there are actually many good ones out there. Many that are better than most movies I've seen over the last few years. "Lost" is a current high point of television right now: complicated character development, carefully developed storylines, gorgeous cinematography, etc. And the combination of Earl/30 Rock/Office regularly make me laugh much more than most so-called "comedies" that have come out recently.
I just picked two wildly popular shows to lament. All these reality/idiot game shows are too horrible to comtemplate. And I don't care if b-list celebrities can dance or ice skate or cook.
I don't watch many TV shows anymore. Earl/30 Rock/Office/Scrubs is really my only regular commitment. Simpsons, TDS and Colbert as well. I love It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Drawn Together is great too, but I hardly ever see them with my 10PM bed time! Unfortunately, I do see lots of football and ESPN. (Although, I bet I'd be awesome at trivial pursuit now that my only weakness - sports - has been somewhat mitigated)
I think yadda yadda was originally a Lenny Bruce thing. It is really annoying to hear now, but not as bad as "you go, girl!" If I see one more person say/write that about Hillary, I think I will snap.
The NHL has been doing a pretty good job killing itself, and not so slowly!
Yeah, Checks and Balances are SOOO 90s! Wasn't Miller alive during Watergate?
"I don't care if b-list celebrities can dance or ice skate or cook."
Hysterical!!!! Me neither! :-)
As we say in the burgh, yinz guys is funny...
I miss celebrity boxing. Its better than dancing or cooking because they were willing to admit that they are so desperate to hold on to whatever fleeting fame they have that they would be willing to take a beat-down on national TV.
The whole deal was a full frontal assault on human dignity but did anyone ever see the time Screetch [sic] almost knocked out Horschack [sic]?
But alas the mastermind behind some of those great old Fox reality shows fell off a cliff...sigh...
ha - the only celebrity boxing i remember hearing about was Tonya Harding against, who was it, Paula Jones? Or Amy Fisher? Not remotely a fair fight either way.
Screech is apparently a real a-hole. He was on a season of Celebrity Fit Club and everyone hated him. (I know, I know, why the hell would I have seen any episdes of that horrible show? It was a VH1 marathon and I was flipping by only to see Screech screaming at Marcia Brady. I felt compelled to watch, even as I loathed it. Then the other various celebrities, and I use that term loosely, were defending her. Punches were nearly thrown.)
Ha ha! I don't have to even do anything other than post my week's favs and sit back. Your conversation has reached a level of geekdom that I would expect from all four of us. Too funny! We definitely all have to get together some night with a lot of beer and pizza. Big fun. (By the way, Matt (Revpasternack) and Krista, you have met. Both of you were at my graduation party. (Krista, Matt was in black with his significant other Nell. Matt, Krista was the tall redhead.)
Matt, I also knew the three chicks you threw out without looking them up. And Debra Messing was actually pretty good in "The Starter Wife." It was a total chick flick miniseries but was summer fun for Thursday nights.
I think I've turned to infotainment because today's television sucks. But I also love it when the directors agree. The big entertainment buzz these last few weeks has been how Tim Kring (Heroes) apologized for how slow this season has been. No one, in my recent knowledge, has made such a public display of regret to his fans. Which is good because I loved the show last year and haven't been too into it lately.
Macy's was cheesy fun as always. The best "float" goes to the cast of "Mary Poppins." They did this awesome dance to "Supercalifragilisticixpialadocious" (which I did not spell correctly). At one point they even spelled it out in the dance using their arms and legs. As Alison will attest, it was a shiny moment in an otherwise typical parade. Oh, and a Rockette screwed up. Oops! :-)
I would also like to add the brilliance of Quentin Tarantino to the good list from the 90s. I don't care what anyone has to say, I love the man and I still think he is doing great work. No one winks quite so well at his own genres. The buckets of blood from "Kill Bill" are hysterical. You know, I once mentioned that to someone and he said it was too unrealistic a fight scene. DUH! That's the point! And let's not forget M. Night. He was a product of the late 90s. The critics have given him a raw deal. I love his movies and I stand by that love. "Lady in the Water" was a very interesting take on reading and misreading.
Matt, I could do a John Candy tribute. He was always one of my favorite actors. "Only the Lonely" was on last Sunday and I got sucked in. What a great film!
Screech is a real a-hole. During the bout, he decided to humiliate Horshack as well as open up a gash above his right eye. Screech has also done porn in recent years.
Aren't you glad you decided to check for new comments now?
I think Harding fought Fisher, and harding kept turning her head away when she would get punched instead of doing something about it. It was a bad scene.
Just as bad was when Joey Buttafucco fought the former pro-wrestler whose character was Chyna. Buttafucco had to cheat and Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini did commentary and actually said that if he's cheating she should go for his junk to prove that two can play at that game. Classic.
PS If its infotainment you want, try Top Gear on BBC America on Monday nights.
Heather, I mentioned Tarantino on my list - just not any specific movie, as I am not that into him.
Yeah, I still like M. Night too. He's at least a real storyteller.
John Candy did the mole joke way before and way better than Austin Powers: "I'm Mole-y Russel's Wart. That's what they call me, Old Melanoma Head."
Infotainment? I guess Dirty jobs qualifies - Mike Rowe is dreamy.
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