Actor and director Kevin Smith (who nearly destroyed his career with "Gigli") will guest-star on the three-part season finale of the N's "Degrassi: The Next Generation."
Smith and his big-screen cohort Jason Mewes ("Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back") will play themselves in episodes airing Aug. 12, 19 and 26 at 8 p.m.
That's a news story geared towards a NYC readership, so the time may vary. Check your local listings.
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Monday, July 11, 2005
AS THE WORLD TURNERIZES
The main reason I posted that opinion piece on comedy sketches was due to a sketch I stumbled across while randomly surfing the other day.
I landed on Comedy Central and they were showing 'Mad TV'. (Maybe it's me, or just the time of day, but I seem to ALWAYS land on 'Mad TV' when I visit Comedy Central!)
In the sketch, a black & white family from a 1950s sitcom were sitting around the dinner table, extolling the virtues of that night's meal. And everything they said was a double entendre, involving swallowing hot dogs, eating Mom's pie, and shaving the... cat.
Those who know me well would call it a "go there" moment.
Finally the family got sick of making everything a double entendre and tried to find subjects in which nothing had a dirty meaning. They finally gave up and tucked into Mom's pie.
Even though they were characters living within a sitcom premise of the 1950s, they were tele-cognizant; that is, they were aware they were in a TV show. And they were up-to-date with the current lingo and what passed for suggestive to the TV audience.
Therefore, I had to figure that, like the Nielsens of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home', this family was also living outside of their own TV world in a sitcom relocation program.
'Hi Honey, I'm Home' has always been a show I'd rather avoid altogether because of the headaches it causes for Toobworld. It was about a sitcom family no longer being watched on a regular basis and so the government somehow moved them out of the TV world and into the "real" world until such time - if any! - when they could go back and be viewed by the masses again.
But if what we see on the TV is considered Toobworld, then their "real world" is actually Toobworld. Therefore, that world's TV world is a further dilution of the many-worlds theory.
It gets worse, trust me. Each episode of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' also had appearances by actual TV characters from other, "real" TV shows: Alice and Trixie from 'The Honeymooners', 'Gomer Pyle', Mr. Mooney of 'The Lucy Show', and Grampa from 'The Munsters'.
Sure, it was great to see them reprise their roles, but those characters are supposed to be living in Toobworld along with the Duff Family (who were the Nielsens' next door neighbors). They're not supposed to know they are TV characters, and the Duffs should not be thinking of themselves as being "real" in comparison to them.
It's too late for this splainin to keep me sane, but maybe it might help anybody else who finds themselves easily obsessed by the trivial.......
The "real world" of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' is in fact not Toobworld at all. It is another alternate dimension controlled by tele-cognizant deities who abduct characters from Toobworld to bring them through the vortex for their own unknowable purposes.
The TV dimension from which the Nielsens and that 'Mad TV' sketch family came from is the actual Toobworld. And once relocated to that alternate dimension, they are aware that they came from a world based on TV shows.
They may not be 'The 4400', but not everybody who mysteriously disappears from our TV screens is automatically abducted by the people from the future. Or by aliens.
I may be wrong about this, but I think of all the celebrity character cameos on 'Hi Honey I'm Home', the only one to be ever seen again on Earth Prime Time was Alice Nelson of 'The Brady Bunch'. (She appeared last year in a commercial celebrating the liberation from drudgery of the household help on our TV shows, thanks to the Swiffer Duster.)
But that doesn't mean the others didn't slide back from that alt. world. Although many of them have passed away since the show was on we might still see Gomer Pyle and Eddie Haskell one day in some program or blipvert. (We still have Trixie Norton and June Cleaver with us, but I'd rather preserve my memories.)
However, Grampa might want to show up again, somewhere, somehow. Even at his advanced age and with the amputation of his leg, Al Lewis has always been irrepressible. And his ordeal in that other dimension could be used to splain away his missing leg......
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
I landed on Comedy Central and they were showing 'Mad TV'. (Maybe it's me, or just the time of day, but I seem to ALWAYS land on 'Mad TV' when I visit Comedy Central!)
In the sketch, a black & white family from a 1950s sitcom were sitting around the dinner table, extolling the virtues of that night's meal. And everything they said was a double entendre, involving swallowing hot dogs, eating Mom's pie, and shaving the... cat.
Those who know me well would call it a "go there" moment.
Finally the family got sick of making everything a double entendre and tried to find subjects in which nothing had a dirty meaning. They finally gave up and tucked into Mom's pie.
Even though they were characters living within a sitcom premise of the 1950s, they were tele-cognizant; that is, they were aware they were in a TV show. And they were up-to-date with the current lingo and what passed for suggestive to the TV audience.
Therefore, I had to figure that, like the Nielsens of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home', this family was also living outside of their own TV world in a sitcom relocation program.
'Hi Honey, I'm Home' has always been a show I'd rather avoid altogether because of the headaches it causes for Toobworld. It was about a sitcom family no longer being watched on a regular basis and so the government somehow moved them out of the TV world and into the "real" world until such time - if any! - when they could go back and be viewed by the masses again.
But if what we see on the TV is considered Toobworld, then their "real world" is actually Toobworld. Therefore, that world's TV world is a further dilution of the many-worlds theory.
It gets worse, trust me. Each episode of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' also had appearances by actual TV characters from other, "real" TV shows: Alice and Trixie from 'The Honeymooners', 'Gomer Pyle', Mr. Mooney of 'The Lucy Show', and Grampa from 'The Munsters'.
Sure, it was great to see them reprise their roles, but those characters are supposed to be living in Toobworld along with the Duff Family (who were the Nielsens' next door neighbors). They're not supposed to know they are TV characters, and the Duffs should not be thinking of themselves as being "real" in comparison to them.
It's too late for this splainin to keep me sane, but maybe it might help anybody else who finds themselves easily obsessed by the trivial.......
The "real world" of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' is in fact not Toobworld at all. It is another alternate dimension controlled by tele-cognizant deities who abduct characters from Toobworld to bring them through the vortex for their own unknowable purposes.
The TV dimension from which the Nielsens and that 'Mad TV' sketch family came from is the actual Toobworld. And once relocated to that alternate dimension, they are aware that they came from a world based on TV shows.
They may not be 'The 4400', but not everybody who mysteriously disappears from our TV screens is automatically abducted by the people from the future. Or by aliens.
I may be wrong about this, but I think of all the celebrity character cameos on 'Hi Honey I'm Home', the only one to be ever seen again on Earth Prime Time was Alice Nelson of 'The Brady Bunch'. (She appeared last year in a commercial celebrating the liberation from drudgery of the household help on our TV shows, thanks to the Swiffer Duster.)
But that doesn't mean the others didn't slide back from that alt. world. Although many of them have passed away since the show was on we might still see Gomer Pyle and Eddie Haskell one day in some program or blipvert. (We still have Trixie Norton and June Cleaver with us, but I'd rather preserve my memories.)
However, Grampa might want to show up again, somewhere, somehow. Even at his advanced age and with the amputation of his leg, Al Lewis has always been irrepressible. And his ordeal in that other dimension could be used to splain away his missing leg......
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
SKETCHY DETAILS II
Building on that idea about comedy sketches being linked to other TV shows, I'd like to see Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders appear on Ricky Gervais' new show 'Extras'.
But not as themselves! Rather I'd like to see them appear as those "atmosphere people" extras they played in a 'French & Saunders' sketch about working on the TV show 'Doctor Who'.
(Their characters were acting as a couple of lizardly vegetation creatures who were guards in a Gallifreyan courtroom. And they were screwing up the scene right and left and in all relative dimensions.)
Sure, it's a Zonk! that plays hob with the position of 'Doctor Who' in the TV Universe. But I was already screwed over by the original version of 'Queer As Folk' when it comes to the Time Lord.
But in a nice way.
As for other TV shows that grew out of comedy sketches, Hugh Davis has alerted me to the sitcom 'Hee Haw Honeys'. This was a spin-off from the long-running cornpone variety show 'Hee Haw'.
So I did some research in my various TV encyclopediae and online, and I came to only one conclusion.
I'm never going to forgive Hugh for this........ Bwahahahaha!
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
But not as themselves! Rather I'd like to see them appear as those "atmosphere people" extras they played in a 'French & Saunders' sketch about working on the TV show 'Doctor Who'.
(Their characters were acting as a couple of lizardly vegetation creatures who were guards in a Gallifreyan courtroom. And they were screwing up the scene right and left and in all relative dimensions.)
Sure, it's a Zonk! that plays hob with the position of 'Doctor Who' in the TV Universe. But I was already screwed over by the original version of 'Queer As Folk' when it comes to the Time Lord.
But in a nice way.
As for other TV shows that grew out of comedy sketches, Hugh Davis has alerted me to the sitcom 'Hee Haw Honeys'. This was a spin-off from the long-running cornpone variety show 'Hee Haw'.
So I did some research in my various TV encyclopediae and online, and I came to only one conclusion.
I'm never going to forgive Hugh for this........ Bwahahahaha!
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
MIN ONKEL AKSEL
Looks to be the day for some Quick Hits as I clean out a lot of little items I've been stumbling across lately.
But first, here's an email from my Uncle Aksel, regarding that Sundance Channel documentary, "Hamburger America". As I mentioned about two weeks ago, my hometown of Meriden, Connecticut, was going to be featured - thanks to the steamed cheeseburgers at Ted's Lunch.
Uncle Axe came out from under his hurricane shelter long enough to write about it.....
Toby;
As we do not get the channel to see this show . . . look to see if they give any credit to the fact that these hamburgers were originally sold at the old Meriden Diner in uptown Meriden.
When the diner was closed Ted, who worked at the Meriden Diner opened up Ted's on No. Broad St. Another cook from the diner worked for him (Whitey}.
Also Tryon's Lunch Box on E. Main St. sold them; the owner had also worked at the Meriden Diner.
Well, I taped the show, but have yet to actually sit through it. Hey, I'm too busy writing about Televisoin to actually WATCH it!
Besides... it would probably make me hungry. I'm easily swayed.
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
But first, here's an email from my Uncle Aksel, regarding that Sundance Channel documentary, "Hamburger America". As I mentioned about two weeks ago, my hometown of Meriden, Connecticut, was going to be featured - thanks to the steamed cheeseburgers at Ted's Lunch.
Uncle Axe came out from under his hurricane shelter long enough to write about it.....
Toby;
As we do not get the channel to see this show . . . look to see if they give any credit to the fact that these hamburgers were originally sold at the old Meriden Diner in uptown Meriden.
When the diner was closed Ted, who worked at the Meriden Diner opened up Ted's on No. Broad St. Another cook from the diner worked for him (Whitey}.
Also Tryon's Lunch Box on E. Main St. sold them; the owner had also worked at the Meriden Diner.
Well, I taped the show, but have yet to actually sit through it. Hey, I'm too busy writing about Televisoin to actually WATCH it!
Besides... it would probably make me hungry. I'm easily swayed.
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
"KILL REALITY"... PLEASE!
'The Scorned' is a supernatural horror flick whose cast is made up of former members of various "reality" TV shows.
And as they film the movie, other camera crews are following each of them around so that a "reality" TV show can be culled from the footage.
'Kill Reality' will be shown on E! starting at the end of July.
Among the cast are Jenna Lewis ('Survivor: Borneo') and Stephen Hill ('The Real World: Las Vegas') as the leads; with Johnny Fairplay of 'Survivor: Pearl Islands' and Ethan Zorn, who won on 'Survivor: Africa'.
Zorn is playing a crazy, homeless psychic whose name is Jon Murray... the same name as the creator of 'The Real World'. The movie will be filled with hundreds of similar in-jokes in connection to the various "reality" shows that have aired over the past six years or so.
Trying to catch all of them should prove a headache for TV critic David Bianculli, who revels in catching such in-jokes, which he calls "Extras".
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
And as they film the movie, other camera crews are following each of them around so that a "reality" TV show can be culled from the footage.
'Kill Reality' will be shown on E! starting at the end of July.
Among the cast are Jenna Lewis ('Survivor: Borneo') and Stephen Hill ('The Real World: Las Vegas') as the leads; with Johnny Fairplay of 'Survivor: Pearl Islands' and Ethan Zorn, who won on 'Survivor: Africa'.
Zorn is playing a crazy, homeless psychic whose name is Jon Murray... the same name as the creator of 'The Real World'. The movie will be filled with hundreds of similar in-jokes in connection to the various "reality" shows that have aired over the past six years or so.
Trying to catch all of them should prove a headache for TV critic David Bianculli, who revels in catching such in-jokes, which he calls "Extras".
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
BOCHCO'S BALLS
After striking out once before in trying to bring minor league baseball to Toobworld (with 'Bay City Blues'), Steven Bochco is trying once again with an un-named comedy pilot for FOX. He's working with comedy writers Nat Bernstein and Mitchel Katlin to develop the project.
I can only hope that the Bay City Blues team gets at least mentioned in passing, perhaps as an in-joke reference on the scoreboard or something. And the same holds true for the Pioneers, who had a bad-tempered mascot named 'Hardball'.......
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
I can only hope that the Bay City Blues team gets at least mentioned in passing, perhaps as an in-joke reference on the scoreboard or something. And the same holds true for the Pioneers, who had a bad-tempered mascot named 'Hardball'.......
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
MADONNA GOES FOR EXTRA CREDIT
Speaking of 'Extras'......
Madonna will be adding to her League of Themselves credits by appearing in the second series of 'Extras', Ricky Gervais' new sitcom about life behind the camera for those "Atmosphere People" on movie locations.
Among those who will be seen on the first series when it premieres on the BBC July 21st are Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson, and Patrick Stewart.
Madonna has been quoted that the highlight of her day at the Live 8 concert in London on July 2nd was that she got to meet her "favorite, favorite, favorite comedian in the whole world, Ricky Gervais."
She told him that she would sweep his floor for him if he would "employ me in such a fashion".
So that's what they call it now over there. Ah, those plucky Brit euphemisms!
Tele-Toby
Madonna will be adding to her League of Themselves credits by appearing in the second series of 'Extras', Ricky Gervais' new sitcom about life behind the camera for those "Atmosphere People" on movie locations.
Among those who will be seen on the first series when it premieres on the BBC July 21st are Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson, and Patrick Stewart.
Madonna has been quoted that the highlight of her day at the Live 8 concert in London on July 2nd was that she got to meet her "favorite, favorite, favorite comedian in the whole world, Ricky Gervais."
She told him that she would sweep his floor for him if he would "employ me in such a fashion".
So that's what they call it now over there. Ah, those plucky Brit euphemisms!
Gervais should have held out until she offered to get down on her knees... and mopped the floor as well.
BCnU!Tele-Toby
GIGLI GOES TO DEGRASSI?
CTV ran a story in Canada a few weeks back, stating that Kevin Smith was lined up to direct a feature film based on the series of shows based on DeGrassi High School.
Here's more on the story:
http://www.newsaskew.com/includes/feature.shtml?id=EEkpylAFVlmgmstmLD&style=single
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Here's more on the story:
http://www.newsaskew.com/includes/feature.shtml?id=EEkpylAFVlmgmstmLD&style=single
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
BRANCHING OUT
Fred Dalton Thompson was a US Senator before joining the cast of 'Law & Order' to become Manhattan D.A. Arthur Branch. He also portrayed himself in a movie with Sissy Spacek. [I'm too logey in this weather to look it up.]
He provided his own most famous tele-version as counsel for the Republican minority on the Senate's Watergate committee back in the early 1970s.
And now he'll be shepherding President Bush's eventual nominee to the Supreme Court through the gauntlet of the inevitable media scrutiny.
Boris Kachka did a little digging to find out what Thompson's doppelganger in Toobworld thought of Sandra Day O'Connor, the Justice whose retirement triggered his new gig.....
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/12201/index3.html
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
He provided his own most famous tele-version as counsel for the Republican minority on the Senate's Watergate committee back in the early 1970s.
And now he'll be shepherding President Bush's eventual nominee to the Supreme Court through the gauntlet of the inevitable media scrutiny.
Boris Kachka did a little digging to find out what Thompson's doppelganger in Toobworld thought of Sandra Day O'Connor, the Justice whose retirement triggered his new gig.....
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/12201/index3.html
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Sunday, July 10, 2005
SKETCHY DETAILS
I don't think I'll ever make up my mind (what's left of it!) as to whether or not individual sketches on comedy/variety shows should be included in the TV Universe as part of the Toobworld "reality".
I can't very well just dismiss them out of hand. If I did that, I'd have to toss out 'Mama's Family' as well, which grew out of a series of sketches on 'The Carol Burnett Show'. 'The Simpsons' can be considered one of the hubs of the Tooniverse, but they began as blackout sketch cartoons on 'The Tracey Ullman Show'. And we would lose the Conehead Family from 'Saturday Night Live' who went on to establish their presence in the Tooniverse as well as in the Cineverse.
So here's how my "rules" stack up... for now:
1] Impersonations of celebrities and TV/movie characters automatically disqualify the sketch from being considered as "real". As funny as those "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketches were, it wasn't Alex Trebek and Sean Connery but 'SNL' players Will Ferrell and Darryl Hammond. And the fact that the real Alex Trebek showed up in the last sketch to pay tribute to the departing Ferrell seals the sketches as just that - comedy bits and not Toobworld's "inner reality".
2] Even if an actor recreates one of his roles (TV or movie) in a sketch, it could count, so long as no other characters from the same production are recreated by the comedy show's performers.
I'm reminded of a sketch on 'Saturday Night Live' that spoofed "Reservoir Dogs" with John Travolta playing his Vinnie Barbarino from 'Welcome Back Kotter'. The sketch also had surprise appearances by 'SNL' regular Michael McKean and by David Landers as their characters Lenny and Squiggy from 'Laverne & Shirley'.
Had it just been the three of them in the sketch, I'd be fighting for the right to include that sketch as the link between both of their shows, in much the same way I consider the 'SNL' sketch of Jerry 'Seinfeld' interacting with the 'Oz' inmates to be a legit link. And I'd counter any opposition to linking 'Welcome Back Kotter' and 'Laverne & Shirley' with a well-reasoned argument in keeping with the situation: "Up your nose with a rubber hose!"
But since Mr. "Kottair" and his other sweat-hogs were played by members of the comedy troupe, the sketch has to be left behind within 'Saturday Night Live' as just a sketch and not a viable component of the TV Universe.
Aside from the usual suspects like the Kramdens, the Coneheads, and Mama's family, there are other "skitsos" whom I want to see as naturalized citizens of Toobworld. Among these would be Miss Swan and Stewart of 'Mad TV'; Debbie Miller, Chico Escuela, and Fred Garvin (male prostitute) of classic 'SNL'; and Mary Catherine Gallagher and the singing group Gemini's Twin from the more recent years of the series.
Geraldine Jones ('Flip!'), Fred Scuttle ('The Benny Hill Show'), Crazy Guggenheim ('The Jackie Gleason Show'), and Mr, Pither, the Minister of Silly Walks, and Teddy Salad (the spy disguised as a dog) from 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'.
They should all be included as well.
After all, if we turned them away, we'd have to turn away 'The Honeymooners' as well. They began life on 'Cavalcade of Stars' and went on to their own series whose episodes are known as "the classic 39". And where would the TV Universe be without Ralph and Norton and Alice and Trixie?
If they hadn't become so integral to the make-up of Toobworld, then we might never have seen a movie about them starring Cedric the Entertainer.
Hmmmmmmmm. On second thought..........
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
I can't very well just dismiss them out of hand. If I did that, I'd have to toss out 'Mama's Family' as well, which grew out of a series of sketches on 'The Carol Burnett Show'. 'The Simpsons' can be considered one of the hubs of the Tooniverse, but they began as blackout sketch cartoons on 'The Tracey Ullman Show'. And we would lose the Conehead Family from 'Saturday Night Live' who went on to establish their presence in the Tooniverse as well as in the Cineverse.
So here's how my "rules" stack up... for now:
1] Impersonations of celebrities and TV/movie characters automatically disqualify the sketch from being considered as "real". As funny as those "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketches were, it wasn't Alex Trebek and Sean Connery but 'SNL' players Will Ferrell and Darryl Hammond. And the fact that the real Alex Trebek showed up in the last sketch to pay tribute to the departing Ferrell seals the sketches as just that - comedy bits and not Toobworld's "inner reality".
2] Even if an actor recreates one of his roles (TV or movie) in a sketch, it could count, so long as no other characters from the same production are recreated by the comedy show's performers.
I'm reminded of a sketch on 'Saturday Night Live' that spoofed "Reservoir Dogs" with John Travolta playing his Vinnie Barbarino from 'Welcome Back Kotter'. The sketch also had surprise appearances by 'SNL' regular Michael McKean and by David Landers as their characters Lenny and Squiggy from 'Laverne & Shirley'.
Had it just been the three of them in the sketch, I'd be fighting for the right to include that sketch as the link between both of their shows, in much the same way I consider the 'SNL' sketch of Jerry 'Seinfeld' interacting with the 'Oz' inmates to be a legit link. And I'd counter any opposition to linking 'Welcome Back Kotter' and 'Laverne & Shirley' with a well-reasoned argument in keeping with the situation: "Up your nose with a rubber hose!"
But since Mr. "Kottair" and his other sweat-hogs were played by members of the comedy troupe, the sketch has to be left behind within 'Saturday Night Live' as just a sketch and not a viable component of the TV Universe.
Aside from the usual suspects like the Kramdens, the Coneheads, and Mama's family, there are other "skitsos" whom I want to see as naturalized citizens of Toobworld. Among these would be Miss Swan and Stewart of 'Mad TV'; Debbie Miller, Chico Escuela, and Fred Garvin (male prostitute) of classic 'SNL'; and Mary Catherine Gallagher and the singing group Gemini's Twin from the more recent years of the series.
Geraldine Jones ('Flip!'), Fred Scuttle ('The Benny Hill Show'), Crazy Guggenheim ('The Jackie Gleason Show'), and Mr, Pither, the Minister of Silly Walks, and Teddy Salad (the spy disguised as a dog) from 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'.
They should all be included as well.
After all, if we turned them away, we'd have to turn away 'The Honeymooners' as well. They began life on 'Cavalcade of Stars' and went on to their own series whose episodes are known as "the classic 39". And where would the TV Universe be without Ralph and Norton and Alice and Trixie?
If they hadn't become so integral to the make-up of Toobworld, then we might never have seen a movie about them starring Cedric the Entertainer.
Hmmmmmmmm. On second thought..........
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
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