February 2007 - Posts
Spinoffs can be popular hits on their own ("The Simpsons" spun off from "The Tracy Ullman Show"), or just horrible ("Joanie Loves Chachi," "AfterMASH"). They can seek a completely different tone than the original show ("Melrose Place" was much more nighttime soapy than earnest "Beverly Hills, 90210"), or just reassemble some familiar faces and hope to coast ("Joey" should have stayed in New York with his "Friends"). What will happen with the new, as-yet-unnamed, Kate-Walsh-starring "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff, which I'm dubbing "Addison's Anatomy"?
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Did Eddie Murphy storm out of the Oscars right after he lost? Why was Jack Nicholson bald? What was up with those dancers? Did an actor really admit to wanting his co-star to lose? Let's delve into a few of those unanswered Oscar questions before putting the show, and the new gold hardware, on the shelf for another year.
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In last week's Multi-link Monday, the definite hit of the five links was the pie-eating game, in which you have 15 chomps to make an entire online pie disappear. As readers pointed out in the comments, one way to do it is to bite out a four-leaf clover in the center first, and then move to the edges, rather than starting with the edges.
Not sure if we'll have such an addictive link this week, but here we go. CONTINUED >>
SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't watched Thursday's "Grey's Anatomy," and don't want spoilers, stop reading now!
Even though it was reported that an important "Grey's Anatomy" character was going to die, and even though Meredith spent part of last week's episode floating in chilly Elliott Bay and seeing dead people, the majority of viewers who chimed in on my earlier Weblog entry agreed that the show was not about to kill off its main character.
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We've just witnessed an ugly example of what big money can do for you: It can take away your peace, even after death.
If Anna Nicole Smith hadn't married J. Howard Marshall, a billionaire 63 years older than she was, the cable news networks might have actually had to cover the Iraq War today. Instead, we were treated to a spectacle so ludicrous you had to laugh out loud, and then shake your head, embarrassed that you were finding humor in a woman's death.
In Logical Land, there should never have been a doubt about where Anna Nicole should be buried. Sure, at 39, she was probably not thinking about her final resting place, but once her 20-year-old son Daniel died shockingly early, and she (or her companion, Howard K. Stern, or her entourage, or whoever) decided to bury him in the Bahamas, that should have been the end of it. Naturally, a mother, especially one who, according to Stern, rarely left her room and was certainly never the same after her son's death, would want to be buried next to her child. CONTINUED >>
If you're a music star who wants to make headlines, it can't hurt to have your name twined with that #1 television show, now running three times a week, "American Idol."
First, Courtney Love claimed that she had been approached to replace judge Paula Abdul on the hit singing contest. Fans of the show went nuts. Sure, Paula had her moments, but in whose universe is Crazy Courtney an improvement? Just as viewers were passionately swearing they'd never watch FOX again if La Love started chugging Cokes next to Simon and Randy, "Idol" producer Nigel Lythgoe joined the fray. CONTINUED >>
It's Presidents' Day, one of those oddball holidays. Most of us don't even get the day off, we have to work all day and go home with not even any new mail delivery to possibly cheer us up (if bills and junk mail can cheer a person up, which...not usually). At least the traffic is usually a bit better. So here's a Multi-link Monday to help you get through working a non-holiday holiday.
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Stop reading here if you haven't yet watched Thursday night's "Grey's Anatomy" episode, the second of a three-episode arc about a ferry accident. If you've seen it already or don't care about spoilers, click on through.
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I think of Valentine's Day as one of those Hallmark holidays, created so we all spend money on greeting cards and roses and chocolates. But then I think: What's so bad about roses and chocolates, and if a greeting card reminds someone to reach out to someone they love, who am I to object?
And I can't help but fall under its spell: A friend and I sometimes buy a whole box of those little-kid cartoon valentines and sign them all from different people (famous folks, fictional characters, people we used to know) and swap the entire box. Nothing like getting a Scooby-Doo valentine "signed" by Bill Gates. (It's a long story...)
With that in mind, here are my favorite Valentine's Day-related links, and feel free to add in your own. CONTINUED >>
I was out of town last week and missed out on all the initial fuss over Anna Nicole Smith's death, but things are only continuing to get weirder. This Associated Press article, in which a reporter checks into a Hollywood, Florida suite similar to the one where Smith spent her last hours, presents an eloquent take without being maudlin.
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Time for a new Multi-link Monday, because even the best employee needs a five-minute distraction or two.
• I just love Comics with Problems, a Web site rounding up those old Important Issue comic books from days gone by. Because really, you might not listen to your mother or your doctor about taking care of yourself while you're pregnant, but you'd certainly listen to that preachy and fictional Rex Morgan, M.D.
• There's a whole photo group on Flickr devoted to pictures people take of Gummi Bears in weird poses. My favorite: A scooter poses a problem for the Family Gummi. (Via Metafilter.)
• Yes, people do dumb things on game shows. But no one is this dumb. Snopes.com debunks an urban legend about a woman on "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" who supposedly didn't know which was larger: The moon, or an elephant.
• The first three "Star Wars" films slimmed down and turned into a silent movie. The Force is strong with this one.
• Enter the New Yorker cartoon caption contest online, or just flip through past winners or current suggestions, and vote for your favorite. When I read the winning captions it always seems so easy, but when I look at the uncaptioned new cartoon I draw a giant blank.
The Super Bowl commercial madness continues, even though the game has been all but forgotten. Just wanted to blog a few updates:
- She said yes: The Seattle man who wanted to propose during the Super Bowl had to downsize his plan a little bit. He proposed during "Veronica Mars" instead, on an ad only seen locally. But she said yes!
- Seattle satirist wants to know why America, and the Blockbuster commercial, are condoning mouse abuse. (It's a joke.)
- We won't have that bizarre Snickers ad to kick around any more.
- This is old, but since we discuss commercials here, I wanted to mention that the "Man Laws" ads for Miller Lite (not Budweiser, as I originally wrote) have also been put on ice.
I'll be back with a new Multi-link Monday on -- well, you know when.
No Multi-link Monday today due to everyone still wanting to talk about the Super Bowl ads. We'll get back to that, and to our comic-strip choice, soon, but I wanted to share a few last Super Bowl loose ends.
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That first post was getting a little long, so I'm moving the Super Bowl TV commercial discussion over to a whole new post. You can still read and post about the first-half commercials, though. Short version: Budweiser's Dalmatian is very cute. He's about the only ad that's received resoundingly positive comments, and we haven't even seen a Clydesdale-starring ad yet.
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Are you ready for some football? Or, more importantly, are you ready for some Super Bowl ads? As I mentioned last week, I'll be blogging about the big game's commercials right here, and invite you to join in via the comment field.
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One of Test Pattern's missions is to stay on top of the best and the worst of TV commercials, especially in summer, with our annual commercial contest. So naturally, I'll be watching Sunday's Super Bowl as much for the ads as for the game itself.
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