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[TV] JANUARY 2016 DISCUSSION


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We're right in the middle of Michael Landon getting shit from Don Rickles, but I wanted to dump a quick load of references for anyone watching and wondering.  So here's a quick rundown of absurdly obscure or just really awesome references contained just in the first segment of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson for May 21, 1974:


- Local affiliate executives used to be flown out to LA and filled the audience for the tonight show once a year during up-fronts.

- No band.  The Musician's Union had been on strike for two weeks and they've been pretending to have music coming out of breaks by just saying "Thanks guys!"  Throughout the 1974 strike, none of the network shows had bands. I think they could play short fragments of tapes but I'd be surprised since the electrician's or stagehand's unions probably wouldn't allow it or would only allow a few seconds to be played.


-vroom scooter by mattel: a little motor you could attach to your bike to kill yourself before the draft got you:

 

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- Dave Tebet: This was a huge running theme.  Dave Tebet was an NBC talent executive who spotted Carson in 1962 when Jack Paar was about to leave the Tonight Show.  He would go on to be a huge bigwig.

"It was Tebet's job to spot and recruit stars for the network and to keep them happy so they would stay, building ratings and profits. He passed out perks, stroked egos and made problems go away."

WIth only three networks in the country, the entire audience somehow knew who this person was.  Rickles talked about him a lot.  Network executives were like NFL GMs back then.

- The Collyer brothers: An infamous pair of hoarders from Harlem who booby trapped their brownstone. Langley and Homer Collyer became the object of much public attention in the 1920s with their antics.  In March 1947 an anonymous phone call about a smell led police to break in locating the body of Homer Collyer.  Langley was said to have fled the scene and a search was launched only to have his body discovered days later  merely ten feet away under a pile of papers.  Johnny Carson made this reference thirty years later and got a laugh.

- Jeeter Lester family: A reference to the main characters in Erskine Cadlwell's 1932 novel Tobacco Road and John Ford's 1941 film adaptation.  They were a commonly referenced stereotype for down-on-their-luck hillbillies although no one outside of an American studies class is likely to get that today.

- Herb Schlosser: President of NBC from 1974-1978.  A symbol of failure as NBC was a distant third during his entire tenure including a year when not a single new show was renewed. He went on to lead RCA during the initial years of Laser disc...another stunning success.  But he was, by all accounts, a nice guy and was the president who oversaw the debut of NBC'S Satruday Night (eventually renamed Saturday Night Live).

- "build a window for Redd Foxx":  A reference for the rumor that Redd Foxx left NBC and "Sanford a& Son" while it was still a ratings powerhouse because NBC refused to give him a dressing room with a window.  Somehow I blame this on Dave Tebet.

- Bob Howard another new bigwig at NBC.  His most NBC moment was his epic negotiotation to win the rights to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, only to have the US boycott the games and NBC eat the contract.

- Kojak!: An ABC juggernaut routinely kicking the crap out of every other tv show on earth.

- Dentugrip: Old people used to use this to hold their dentures in place.

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You put this slop onto a thing you put in your mouth and you were happy when it hardened like cement inside your body.


- Forest Lawn Cemetary (not really period, but very LA).

- The Century plaza hotel: Which was only ten years old or so in 1974 and was still the place for the biggest stars to hold announcements and such.  It's now a fucking Hyatt.

- Dinah Shore backing into a meat thermometer:  Jesus, Johnnie!  I think this rough punchline was a reference to the fact that Dinah Shore had just left NBC for a syndication deal after decades with the network in one way or another.  It's a company town, Dinah.

- Marcello Mastroianni: was apparently still a name you could drop on late night tv. for a laugh.


- NBC white paper: A news documentary program that ran from 1960 into the 1980s.  It was boring as all fuck:



Special bonus:  Your Carson pushes it maybe a little too far for 1974 joke of the night:

Carnac: "The Girl with Something Extra"

Envelope: "What do you call a girl whose measurements are 34, 26, 36, and 9."

 

Goddamn, man!!!

 

Note: The Girl with Something Extra was actually a short-live NBC show starring Sally Field, John Davidson, and Teri Garr!! One of the guests for this show, Carol Wayne was also on it.  She looked and sounded like every woman Jack Tripper tried to date.  She would go on to pose for Playboy and be murdered on a beach.
 

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Last night's was 90.  From 1975.  Tonight's is too.  maybe they are doing 90s on the weekend and 60s during the week.

 

None of this matters because I"M NEVER GOING TO ELGET TO SEE ANY OF OTIT FUCK YOU DISH!!!!

 

What about one the smaller, indoor extended range antennas?  Like this or this?  When we bought my parents their first HD tv for Christmas last year, they bought one of the Mohu Leaf Ultimate antennas with the 50 mile range and they can pull in at least one channel from 60+ miles away(though to be fair they live in the country and it's pretty wide open with clear sight lines).  The ones I linked are supposed to 60+ mile range.  You have already looked into those, but thought I'd throw it out there as an idea.

 

 

I was looking at the Mohu curve and might try one.  But all the line of sight websites have my address and this tower as "requires an outdoor antenna waaaaay high off the ground to even have a chance, son."

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The Expanse is fucking awesome.  Everyone should be watching it.

 

As far as Sherlock goes, I loved the new episode only because I've wanted to see BC and MF carry a story set in the traditional period.

 

I love Andrew Scott as Moriarty, but I hate what Gattis and Moffat have done with the character.  I have no issue with Scott merely doing his best to play the character as written, but IMO, SACD's Moriarty is not some flamboyant, over the top, personality. 

 

Moriarty's strength lies in the fact that he respects the capabilities of his enemies (even if he may not respect the persons themselves) and plans accordingly. 

 

Only stupid criminals believe that the police are stupid.  Moriarty has contempt for Scotland Yard, but he does not feel he is superior to Scotland Yard. He knows that even a constable such as Lestrade can blunder his way to the truth either by diligence, perseverance, or even pure circumstance. 

 

There is a reason why SACD did not fully develop Moriarty's character.  The stories are told from Watson's point of view so we only know the things that Watson knows (and those things are colored with Sherlock's personal bias) and it is a poor criminal mastermind that allows his actions, motives, methods, networks, and enterprises to be exposed by the torchlight of law enforcement.

 

I have always found it humorous that the Holmes villain we know the least about is his most famous antagonist.  We know more about Irene Adler than we do about James Moriarty, yet people always applaud Scott's portrayal of Moriarty as being the most faithful portrayal to the stories..  

 

People who say that have not read the stories.  Their points of reference concerning Moriarty probably come from the Basil Rathbone features.

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New episode of The Expanse should come on tonight on Syfy and that collides with the debut of The Shannara Chronicles on MTV.

 

Part of me wants to watch The Shannara Chronicles on MTV since those novels were part of my child hood. 

 

Part of me wonders if The Shannara Chronicles on MTV will really be all that good...

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Expanse is off our rotation. Got through episode 2 and I think the general sense around the house was too much action we weren't invested in, not enough character stuff. Wife is heavily into Dark Matter/Killjoys/Defiance, but this one didn't make it past the post.

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Whoa, I came in here feeling like an old man about to recommend the Carson episodes, but boy was I ever beaten to the punch.

 

That 70s episode from Sunday night was eye-opening.  I was always a fan of Michael Landon growing up, but I never knew what dry wit he had.  He may have been the funniest person on the show.  And when most talk shows struggle to fill an hour, that 90 minutes (aside from that endless Bob Hope sketch) just flew by. 

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I bet I'm the only watching it, but Galavant is such a fun little show. . . .

 

According to the ratings, yes you are.

 

Pretty downer Carson tonight with Richard Pryor clearly showing early signs of his MS and Johnny all but saying that he doesn't look well.  Also it looks like any musical acts will be edited out. 

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The pilot ep of The Shannara Chronicles did not suck.  Some good, some bad, and a lot of fast and lose treatment of the source material which may turn off purists.

 

Ep 5 of The Expanse was solid.  The mystery of Julie Mao continues to heat up.  I will continue to keep up with The Expanse and binge watch  Shannara Chronicles on the weekends.

 

New season of American Crime starts tonight.  Prepping my heart to be broken by the end of the storyline.

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New season of American Crime starts tonight. Prepping my heart to be broken by the end of the storyline.

Thanks for the reminder. Loved the first season and love the concept of keeping the same actors but putting them into different characters with a new story. And this one sounds like a barnburner.

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The pilot ep of The Shannara Chronicles did not suck.  Some good, some bad, and a lot of fast and lose treatment of the source material which may turn off purists.

 

Ep 5 of The Expanse was solid.  The mystery of Julie Mao continues to heat up.  I will continue to keep up with The Expanse and binge watch  Shannara Chronicles on the weekends.

 

New season of American Crime starts tonight.  Prepping my heart to be broken by the end of the storyline.

The end?  I fully expect to be angry 50 minutes into tonight's episode.

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The pilot ep of The Shannara Chronicles did not suck.  Some good, some bad, and a lot of fast and lose treatment of the source material which may turn off purists.

 

Ep 5 of The Expanse was solid.  The mystery of Julie Mao continues to heat up.  I will continue to keep up with The Expanse and binge watch  Shannara Chronicles on the weekends.

 

New season of American Crime starts tonight.  Prepping my heart to be broken by the end of the storyline.

 

The end?  I fully expect to be angry 50 minutes into tonight's episode.

 

Oh I plan to be angry during every episode.  It is the end that will make me contemplate getting into a shopping card and pushing myself into a busy freeway.

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Has anyone watched Colony? I like that Sawyer from Lost looks like Sawyer from Lost again, and this was supposed to be another one of USA's newer, better TV series.

 

Also, I think only Jrag is going to care, but after HBO ordered a second season of The Brink, they fucking cancelled it. DAMMIT. I didn't see that mentioned anywhere else until today, when I came across it in an article about something else. I didn't like how that season started, but it got so much better as it went on, and was actually intense and hilarious.

 

And season 6 will be Girls' last. Good riddance. I liked Girls when it started, but man, they're all just the worst people. What a bunch of assholes who become even worse people.

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The same cast playing different roles in American Crime is throwing me off.  I actually like the character that Felicity Huffman is playing this time around and I wanted to slug her character last season.

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Does this mean we can have SNL outside this year and the earliest days back on Netflix?

 

SNL is going exclusive to that new $3.99/month Seeso comedy streaming service NBC is launching. They are hyping On Demand access to the entire forty years, though I can't imagine that will include musical performances and any sketches involving popular music cues beyond what they cleared for the first five seasons on DVD.

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Anybody else watch Ash vs. Evil Dead? It was a blast from start to finish but holy hell was the finale right up there with Evil Dead 2. Just perfect and they set up season 2 really well too.

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