I'm sure everyone has sort of a list like this in their head - of things they would immediately purchase if only such a thing actually existed.
Here's a few of mine:
Seasons 2 thru 5 of Growing Pains on DVD. So far, only one season of the highly underrated 80's sitcom has been released on DVD - and that was five years ago. I guess it didn't sell very well, so it may be highly underrated only from my perspective. I prefer it to either The Cosby Show or Family Ties. You can catch a few old episodes on WB.com and I have a few more on VHS, but that is a far cry from having the full set! Notice that I'm not even asking for seasons 6 or 7 (which took place even though the series had run out of steam by then) - however, I don't have much hope that we will see any further seasons released.
Teen Angel on DVD with commentary and deleted scenes. I'm talking about the 1989 "miniseries" which ran during episodes of the Mickey Mouse Club on the Disney Channel. Never heard of it? Not surprised. However, it is a television classic about a misfit kid who loves the fifties, and needs help from his James Dean-eque guardian angel to get the attention of a girl at school. If you're not already convinced, maybe I should mention that the guardian angel is played by Jason Priestley. Yes, THAT Jason Priestley. Pre-90210 Jason Priestley. Before he was Jason Priestley. Plus, the girl is played by Renee O'Connor, who I think went on to become the sidekick of Xena Warrior Princess. It's the bomb!
Adventures in Babysitting Soundtrack. I actually thought of it this morning and did a quick search. I believe there is some sort of an underground version that someone has created, but a legitimate one was never produced. Still - that movie had some good music:
Babysitting Blues - Then He Kissed Me - Expressway to your Heart - Future in your Eyes - Twenty Five Miles - Evil (Is Going On) - The Brady Bunch Theme - What Does It Take (To Win Your Love?) - Just Can't Stop - Albert's Smokin' Ice - Gimme Shelter -Real Wild Child - Blues had a Baby and they Named it Rock-N-Roll -Bring it on Home to Me
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Lou Brown (1940-2010)
Lost in all the hubbub over the death of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner last week was the fact that another legendary baseball figure also passed away - actor James Gammon, who portrayed Lou Brown, the manager of the Cleveland Indians in the movie "Major League".
Brown was famously managing a tire shop when he got the unsolicited job offer. But instead of leading the Indians to a dead-last finish as hoped by team management, he masterfully melded the talents of Willie "Mays" Hayes, Roger Dorn, Pedro Cerrano and Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn and led them past the Yankees to the AL East title.
The gravelly-voiced actor uttered such unforgettable lines as "Give 'em the heater!" and "We're out of towels!" and will live on in our memories. I haven't seen the edited-for-TV version of Major League playing on USA or TBS lately. Fortunately, I have it taped. You would be wise to avoid the non-edited version due to some other unforgettable lines.
Monday, July 19, 2010
30 for 30 on ESPN
ESPN celebrated their 30-year anniversary in 2009. One of the things they did to commemorate the occassion was to kick off a series of documentaries. Filmmakers were commissioned to produce 30 films on different topics of the past 30 years. This was a win-win for me as I like sports and also like history.
Unfortunately, ESPN has not been very generous with actually putting these on the air. They are really hard to catch unless you have a DVR and they are frequently pre-empted if boxing or baseball or whatever run over the allotted time.
I have enjoyed several of these that I have been able to watch:
Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? Involves a lot of reminiscing about the short-lived spring football league which played from 1983 to 1985, as well as an examination of the guy who killed it by forcing a move to a fall schedule - Donald Trump.
The U Talks about the University of Miami football dynasty of the 1980s and the fact that they weren't exactly choirboys, even by college football standards.
Winnning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks One of my favorite sports moments of the nineties was a 1994 playoff game at Madison Square Garden when Reggie Miller scored 25 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Indiana Pacers to victory - while talking trash to Knicks fan Spike Lee, who was sitting courtside. It was fun to relive that series of events.
Guru of Go Tells the story of basketball coach Paul Westhead, who brought his run and gun style to Loyola Marymount University in the late eighties and shattered scoring records before the tragic death of star player Hank Gathers.
I've seen a few others that have been slightly boring - one about Wayne Gretzky, one about the Balitmore Colts marching band, one about Len Bias. One that recently came out is "The Two Escobars" which deals with the convergence of the Columbian national soccer team and the drug trade. It is interesting, but uses a lot of subtitles, so it is somewhat tedious and we haven't finished it yet.
I have so far missed a few that I wanted to see - one about Jimmy the Greek, another about the invention of Rotisserie Baseball, and one about O.J.'s ride in the white Bronco. Plus there are several which have yet to premiere which look interesting.
Fortunately, Elizabeth is usually willing to watch these with me because as she says, "I always love a documentary."
So I think these are really good even if you aren't necessarily a sports fan. But then, I wouldn't know because I am a sports fan.
Unfortunately, ESPN has not been very generous with actually putting these on the air. They are really hard to catch unless you have a DVR and they are frequently pre-empted if boxing or baseball or whatever run over the allotted time.
I have enjoyed several of these that I have been able to watch:
Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? Involves a lot of reminiscing about the short-lived spring football league which played from 1983 to 1985, as well as an examination of the guy who killed it by forcing a move to a fall schedule - Donald Trump.
The U Talks about the University of Miami football dynasty of the 1980s and the fact that they weren't exactly choirboys, even by college football standards.
Winnning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks One of my favorite sports moments of the nineties was a 1994 playoff game at Madison Square Garden when Reggie Miller scored 25 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Indiana Pacers to victory - while talking trash to Knicks fan Spike Lee, who was sitting courtside. It was fun to relive that series of events.
Guru of Go Tells the story of basketball coach Paul Westhead, who brought his run and gun style to Loyola Marymount University in the late eighties and shattered scoring records before the tragic death of star player Hank Gathers.
I've seen a few others that have been slightly boring - one about Wayne Gretzky, one about the Balitmore Colts marching band, one about Len Bias. One that recently came out is "The Two Escobars" which deals with the convergence of the Columbian national soccer team and the drug trade. It is interesting, but uses a lot of subtitles, so it is somewhat tedious and we haven't finished it yet.
I have so far missed a few that I wanted to see - one about Jimmy the Greek, another about the invention of Rotisserie Baseball, and one about O.J.'s ride in the white Bronco. Plus there are several which have yet to premiere which look interesting.
Fortunately, Elizabeth is usually willing to watch these with me because as she says, "I always love a documentary."
So I think these are really good even if you aren't necessarily a sports fan. But then, I wouldn't know because I am a sports fan.
Something New
I decided that after two years it was about time to try out a new blog template. This one is called "picture window" or something. I hope all five of you enjoy it.
I hope that my previous post didn't come off as favoring LeBron too much. Just to clarify, I don't like him at all and probably wouldn't show up to watch him if he were playing at Grandview High School. It's mainly the media that is so ridiculous - build someone up, and then when the time is right, tear them to pieces. For another example see Spears, Britney.
I hope that my previous post didn't come off as favoring LeBron too much. Just to clarify, I don't like him at all and probably wouldn't show up to watch him if he were playing at Grandview High School. It's mainly the media that is so ridiculous - build someone up, and then when the time is right, tear them to pieces. For another example see Spears, Britney.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
My Personal LBJ Take
Another day cannot pass without my take on LeBron James aka "King James". If you haven't been following this story or if you just returned from a two-month vacation to the third moon of Jupiter, here is a quick recap.
LeBron is the greatest active NBA player. Except for on the days when it is Kobe Bryant. A better way to say it is that people want him to be the greatest NBA player of all time - sort of a cross between Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. Only better. He's not quite there yet - only 25. But the big deal is that he was in the last year of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and was set on testing the free agent market. He could go anywhere - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. And pretty much anywhere would be happy to have him. And pay him. Lots and lots of money.
Anyways, the media has been talking this to death for weeks. It was practically a bigger story than the NBA playoffs, while they were still going on. Where was LeBron going to go? And then it got worse after the playoffs ended. Radio, TV, print - no one could ask the question enough times or come up with enough answers and theories on what was going to happen.
Finally, LeBron said that he was going to announce his decision via a one-hour special on ESPN and donate the advertising proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club. This escalated the nonstop LeBron coverage. I think ESPN had two hours of preview coverage for the one-hour special. I did not watch it on TV but listened to some of it in the car. The special itself was more asking the golden question. Where is LeBron going to go?
Finally, he announced that he was "taking his talents to South Beach" to play for the Miami Heat.
Since then, everyone (meaning the media) has been in an outrage about LeBron. "I can't believe he would go on national TV and break Cleveland's heart. . . LeBron is such a narcissist. . . LeBron got some terrible PR advice. . . what was he thinking, having an hour long special. . . This is because LeBron doesn't have a strong father figure. . . this is the end of professional sports as we know it. . . why did he have to announce it this way. . ."
And yet, I don't remember anyone in the media whining about the TV special beforehand. Of course not, because they practically asked for it! It seemed to be the only fitting end for weeks of breathless coverage - just like the only fitting end for months of speculation about the NCAA tournament is a one-hour special where they reveal the brackets. Just like the only fitting end for months of speculation about the NFL draft is to top it off with a few dozen hours of live coverage where NFL teams reveal who they picked!
Don't mistake me for a LeBron fan. In fact, don't mistake me for a basketball fan. I can barely stand to watch the sport anymore. I watched maybe three hours of NBA action during the 2009-2010 season. And so if you can choose pretty much anywhere in the US to work, and sucker ESPN into donating millions to a charity of your choice in the process, why wouldn't you?
And if it was so uncool to do the one-hour special where he "stabbed Cleveland in the back", then why didn't somebody at ESPN pull him aside and say, "Yo, LeBron, this isn't cool. We don't want to be a part of this, and you're getting some bad PR advice."
But they didn't do that. Probably because then the special would have been on another sucker cable network.
Still, being a sports fan, I can understand that people can get upset. People love to be upset. And the sports media love to stir the pot, because more upset people mean they are buying more papers, listening to more talk shows, and lighting up more websites.
But you guys wanted this! You know you did! You know you wanted it to be a live one-hour special broadcast around the world! Because he's King James! You created him!
And no controversy about a black person is complete without Jesse Jackson weighing in. . . he accused the Cavaliers owner of having a slave owner mentality. Sigh. Really, Jesse? You know you are basically a caricature of yourself at this point, right?
But I'm not getting in to that today. . .
LeBron is the greatest active NBA player. Except for on the days when it is Kobe Bryant. A better way to say it is that people want him to be the greatest NBA player of all time - sort of a cross between Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. Only better. He's not quite there yet - only 25. But the big deal is that he was in the last year of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and was set on testing the free agent market. He could go anywhere - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. And pretty much anywhere would be happy to have him. And pay him. Lots and lots of money.
Anyways, the media has been talking this to death for weeks. It was practically a bigger story than the NBA playoffs, while they were still going on. Where was LeBron going to go? And then it got worse after the playoffs ended. Radio, TV, print - no one could ask the question enough times or come up with enough answers and theories on what was going to happen.
Finally, LeBron said that he was going to announce his decision via a one-hour special on ESPN and donate the advertising proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club. This escalated the nonstop LeBron coverage. I think ESPN had two hours of preview coverage for the one-hour special. I did not watch it on TV but listened to some of it in the car. The special itself was more asking the golden question. Where is LeBron going to go?
Finally, he announced that he was "taking his talents to South Beach" to play for the Miami Heat.
Since then, everyone (meaning the media) has been in an outrage about LeBron. "I can't believe he would go on national TV and break Cleveland's heart. . . LeBron is such a narcissist. . . LeBron got some terrible PR advice. . . what was he thinking, having an hour long special. . . This is because LeBron doesn't have a strong father figure. . . this is the end of professional sports as we know it. . . why did he have to announce it this way. . ."
And yet, I don't remember anyone in the media whining about the TV special beforehand. Of course not, because they practically asked for it! It seemed to be the only fitting end for weeks of breathless coverage - just like the only fitting end for months of speculation about the NCAA tournament is a one-hour special where they reveal the brackets. Just like the only fitting end for months of speculation about the NFL draft is to top it off with a few dozen hours of live coverage where NFL teams reveal who they picked!
Don't mistake me for a LeBron fan. In fact, don't mistake me for a basketball fan. I can barely stand to watch the sport anymore. I watched maybe three hours of NBA action during the 2009-2010 season. And so if you can choose pretty much anywhere in the US to work, and sucker ESPN into donating millions to a charity of your choice in the process, why wouldn't you?
And if it was so uncool to do the one-hour special where he "stabbed Cleveland in the back", then why didn't somebody at ESPN pull him aside and say, "Yo, LeBron, this isn't cool. We don't want to be a part of this, and you're getting some bad PR advice."
But they didn't do that. Probably because then the special would have been on another sucker cable network.
Still, being a sports fan, I can understand that people can get upset. People love to be upset. And the sports media love to stir the pot, because more upset people mean they are buying more papers, listening to more talk shows, and lighting up more websites.
But you guys wanted this! You know you did! You know you wanted it to be a live one-hour special broadcast around the world! Because he's King James! You created him!
And no controversy about a black person is complete without Jesse Jackson weighing in. . . he accused the Cavaliers owner of having a slave owner mentality. Sigh. Really, Jesse? You know you are basically a caricature of yourself at this point, right?
But I'm not getting in to that today. . .
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
What's the Big Deal? #2
So I started this "series" a while back and I had a couple of ideas but I haven't exactly followed through by writing about them.
This one is sports-related, from a couple of months ago. So you've probably all heard of Ken Griffey, Jr., one of the greatest baseball players of our time. So anyways, he went back to Seattle to finish his career with the Mariners, the team he started with over 20 years ago.
So the Mariners lost a tight game earlier this year and the manager was asked why Griffey hadn't been available to pinch-hit, and I think the manager sort of dodged the question. Anyways, a story later came out saying that Griffey had gone back to the clubhouse to get a jacket in the middle of game and never came back. And so a couple of players had gone back and found him asleep in a chair in front of his locker. And so that's why he wasn't available to pinch-hit.
And then the whole thing blew up all over the place. Everyone vehemently denied that Griffey had been sleeping during the game. One of the Mariners wanted a piece of whoever had been the team "source" on the story. And the whole team refused to speak with anyone from the Tacoma News-Tribune, which I believe had published or somehow facilitated the story.
I actually thought it was hilarious that "Nap-Gate" caused such an uproar. Let's think about this for a second. First of all, it's baseball. It's not like they were fighting in Iraq or something. Second of all, it's Ken Griffey Jr. If you have over 600 career home runs, you should probably be able to walk around the dugout with no pants on without anyone batting an eye. If he was just a rookie - then there might be a controversy. Finally, he's 40 years old! Some of those games last well past 10 PM - that's late for an old guy.
But anyways, for some reason there were some serious debates going on in the media about this whole episode. I think it's mainly a product of the 24/7 media. If this happened in 1990, I kind of doubt anyone outside of King County ever hears about it.
I guess Junior took the hint, because he has retired from baseball since the controversy.
This one is sports-related, from a couple of months ago. So you've probably all heard of Ken Griffey, Jr., one of the greatest baseball players of our time. So anyways, he went back to Seattle to finish his career with the Mariners, the team he started with over 20 years ago.
So the Mariners lost a tight game earlier this year and the manager was asked why Griffey hadn't been available to pinch-hit, and I think the manager sort of dodged the question. Anyways, a story later came out saying that Griffey had gone back to the clubhouse to get a jacket in the middle of game and never came back. And so a couple of players had gone back and found him asleep in a chair in front of his locker. And so that's why he wasn't available to pinch-hit.
And then the whole thing blew up all over the place. Everyone vehemently denied that Griffey had been sleeping during the game. One of the Mariners wanted a piece of whoever had been the team "source" on the story. And the whole team refused to speak with anyone from the Tacoma News-Tribune, which I believe had published or somehow facilitated the story.
I actually thought it was hilarious that "Nap-Gate" caused such an uproar. Let's think about this for a second. First of all, it's baseball. It's not like they were fighting in Iraq or something. Second of all, it's Ken Griffey Jr. If you have over 600 career home runs, you should probably be able to walk around the dugout with no pants on without anyone batting an eye. If he was just a rookie - then there might be a controversy. Finally, he's 40 years old! Some of those games last well past 10 PM - that's late for an old guy.
But anyways, for some reason there were some serious debates going on in the media about this whole episode. I think it's mainly a product of the 24/7 media. If this happened in 1990, I kind of doubt anyone outside of King County ever hears about it.
I guess Junior took the hint, because he has retired from baseball since the controversy.
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