Even as a kid some things bugged me about some of the Saturday morning cartoons. The big, obvious departures from reality weren't a problem. Hey, these were cartoons and like Bugs Bunny says, "You can get away with nearly anything-- in an animated cartoon." It was the cartoons that tried to emulate reality that ran into trouble. One example was the Flintstones which I mentioned a few years ago. (Short version: Why didn't the rear axle fall out?) But recently I realized that a couple other dumb things I'd seen in some cartoons can now be explained.

One annoyance was that a tiny radio transmitter could be placed on a vehicle and and the vehicle then tracked. Tiny transmitter, sure. Tracking, sure. But at the time it would have required triangulation from at least two receiving sites, if conditions were ideal. But the cartoon (it was probably one of the many incarnation of Scooby Doo but I cannot say for sure) showed a single receiver, with a big display and showing a dot to follow. It might have even showed the local streets - clearly nonsense... at the time. Today it can be and is done. The tiny transmitter has a GPS receiver and the tracking receiver might as well have the data that a GPS navigation has.

Another annoyance was the home computer or terminal that a kid had (this was likely Clue Club or another, similar cartoon) or had ready access to, that could be used to look up nearly anything, and quickly. Sure, like the kid would even have outside access - that would tie up a phone line, if it happened at all, and then it's just be to a BBS. And maybe 1200 baud. Maybe. This might have been the days of 300 baud (it's faster than 110, yay!) for the typical home/hobbyist modem. Of course we know that that changed. CPU speeds went up. Modem speeds went up, and then came broadband with DSL and cable. And then add real internet access, the web, search engines, and now "Google is your friend." The problem now is not getting access to information, but sorting it down to the useful pieces.

I'm sure there are other examples of modern technology making simplistic nonsense in old cartoons now an explicable or even expected thing. Those are just the two I recall bothering me, that can now be explained away as "being ahead of their time" rather than just being plot devices.

Current Mood: full

( Is it scary because it works? )

Current Mood: amused

I mentioned that show that Penn & Teller have a week or so ago. Today I found out just a bit more about it. The person in it still hasn't actually seen the episode, so there is no direct commentary on that. There is something mighty interesting about the release he signed, however. His words (emphasis mine):

The program started several years ago as a semi humorous debunking action, but I have only seen one of them. Last Fall, a crew was taping at the Carolina Ren Faire, and I happened to be one of the interviewees. Well, I should have known: The release form stated up front that they might edit, dub, or even fictionalize my appearance (and all the others, of course). But, I got assurances from the crew that, since Penn & Teller had got their start at a faire (actually the Minnesota faire), they wouldn't shaft us. I have received notes from several people who saw the program who state I was heavily edited, and essentially used to make us look bad. Since I haven't seen the program yet, no further comments, but it is clear that I was used, in some manner.

At least they were honest about their dishonesty, huh?

Current Mood: unimpressed

There's been a couple interesting posts on a_f_r, a group for those interested in renaissance faires. Last year there was a camera crew going around one fair and some interviews were done. A few days ago the result aired.

Before it aired this was posted:

Given the amount of stuff about faires in the media (including cartoons) which shows faire folk as either out of touch oddballs or downright crazy, this could be a chance for some more or less factual publicity about faires in general. On the other hand, the show has an interesting history and premise: It's basically a debunking effort, in which several sides of an issue are presented--and, thanks to careful editing (not to mention interviewing techniques) one side looks like total idiots, and the other looks like dupes, or, alternately, bunco artists. On the other hand, Penn & Teller have a history with faires. [source]

And after it aired:

As some of us feared, it was another lame "exposé" on those nutcases who like the faire scene. And, apparently I was one of the major figures quoted (completely out of context) establishing how big nutcases we are. [source]

A bit of editing and anything be can taken out of context and still be presented as true, and sadly find folks that will believe the result. And who better than magicians to misdirect?

Current Mood: unsurprised
Current Music: Anvil Chorus -- Glenn Miller

Some time ago I saw The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters. Except I did not see the thing mentioned in that linked. I saw the thing that the linked program was edited from. The original, full version is closer to a full 60 minutes (though I was once sure it was nearly 90 minutes) than the shrunken "television hour" of what most know. What happened? Disney did. Disney snapped it up and cut it down. I saw the original, uncut version made for PBS's American Playhouse. And it was hilarious.

Jean Shepherd (who also did A Christmas Story which I find not to be as good) tells the story of a small town American Fourth of July and the various stories and side-stories to it all. To fit within the one-hour commercial television slot, stuff was cut. Most of the major stories are still there, but enough little bits are cut that it's a shadow of what it should be. It's annoying. It's very... almost. Maybe if you haven't seen the original, full version the cut down version can be pretty good. But if you know there are bits missing, it's quite frustrating. It's a cinnamon roll without the cinnamon: The bulk is there, but it's not all there, the part that really makes it is missing. I'd like to see it again, but only if it's the complete thing.

Current Mood: nostalgic

I was surprised a couple nights ago when bronxelf IMed me, asking if we got Comedy Central and saying that Jay was on South Park. jmaynard didn't know anything of this, but I did manage to find Comedy Central on the local cable system, just in time to see a brawl where various internet sensations were killed off. The Tron Guy was done in by a panda.

We now have a tape of the episode, and we both watched as that episode aired again last night so we've now seen it in full. Jay has posted about it. As the bit at the opening of show says, the voices are "impersonated... badly." I've suggested to Jay that he might want to record some, though not all, of the lines as if he was doing ADR and let people compare.

As for the show itself, I think it just confirmed that, other than this appearance, I am not really missing anything by not watching it. Annoyingly, some fragments of the dialog and irritating voicing has been stuck in my mind as a bit of an earworm. That, fortunately, is fading.

And no, I am not looking to get or make a panda fursuit.

Current Mood: surprised

I watch TV as a distraction while on I'm on the treadmill. As a result I wind up watching some things I would not otherwise. Tonight I wound up watching something on "Peak Oil" on the History channel that was generally factual with more sensationalism than I care for. I could stand that, it was entertaining if for the wrong reasons.

After that, I switched to Discovery which had a show about the Three Gorges Dam in China. This wasn't bad, at first. Then the narrator got to the electrical generation part of things and it was quite distracting as he kept saying "turban" rather than "turbine." This was bad enough, but when he got to a line about the section of the dam where the generators were located as being "where the electricity is stored" I just couldn't take it any more. Generators and turbines do not store electricity. I don't blame the narrator for that blunder, but some writer is an idiot.

Between the writer and narrator it was enough to make me think of putting a battery in a head-wrap. The result would be what was being talked about: electricity stored in a turban.

Current Mood: grumpy

Before Mystery Science Theater 3000 and before Elvira, there were other local productions where older B movies were shown. There was a short-lived, I think, one in the late 1970s from a TV station in Wausau, WI that was on sometime on a weekend afternoon. But the one I remember was a late-night thing on channel 11 in Green Bay, WI for a while in the 1980s.

( Aim the antenna for Green Bay, adjust the fine tuning... )

Current Mood: nostalgic

In this post Wil Wheaton relates some of the strangeness that was Dr. Gene Scott. While I didn't see him on UHF TV in L.A. I did see him on C-band satellite where he was just as strange.

Gene Scott was allegedly a TV preacher, though when thinking it over it's hard to say if he really was a TV preacher or a parody of a TV preacher - or maybe both. He would seem to sit in a chair for hours and ramble on about whatever struck him at the moment. Sometimes he'd have some tune played. This tune might be something you'd expect. But it could just as easily be something you wouldn't expect, such as Kill Some Piss-ants for Jesus (So help me, I am not making that up). He might, when the tune was over, talk about it, or talk about anything else, or just have it played again. And again.

I forget if he ever took callers or if he only dealt with letters, but one response to a critic stands out. The critic stated that Gene was fleecing his followers. His reply was something like, "That's what a shepherd does with a flock."

I stayed up way too late last night, making sure the VCRs taped the Jimmy Kimmel show. $!#% ballgame throwing the schedule off. I got the show taped, though I likely clipped a bit of the intro on both tapes. $!#% ballgame throwing the schedule off.

The result is that I'm tired today. Tired enough to resort to drinking a can of Mountain Dew for the caffeine. Now I'm sort of awake. I'm still tired, but the nerves seem to be firing a bit more, if that makes any sense. It's interesting to watch myself appear to be awake but still not feeling like I'm really awake. The last time I really noticed this was in college after pulling a rare all-nighter and using way too much caffeine. I felt caffeine's other, non-stimulant, effects for a few days after that. I hope that doesn't happen this time - those effects are rather annoying. So no more caffeine for me today. Maybe I should have had something other than a Mountain Dew.

( Music abuse )

I think I'll take a nap after supper tonight.

( Preserved comment(s) )

Current Mood: not really awake
Current Music: "Mother's Little Helper" - internal twisted versions

In a followup to babsbunny's post about Canadian children's television , gothkat mentions perhaps the most famous series, You Can't Do That On Television. That got me looking for something and I found the site linked to in that last sentence. The FAQ is interesting reading.

I'd known it enjoyed popularity in the U.S. and that it had similarities to Laugh-In, even using some of the same music. I did not know that it wasn't so popular in Canada, nor that Ruth Buzzi, who had been a Laugh-In regular, was on the show in the very beginning.

What really got my attention, though, was this entry:

WERE THERE ANY SPIN-OFF SERIES OF YCDTOTV?

[...]
Roger Price and Geoffrey Darby made a clone of YCDTOTV for PBS in the Fall of 1983. It was called Don't Look Now, and was a live, one-hour show on six Sundays in October of that year. It was very highly rated (second highest rated kids show on PBS up to that time). It also made Nickelodeon very angry, but PBS decided not to pick up additional episodes.

YCDTOTV was only on Nickelodeon, which meant cable. I think I saw part of an episode at my grandmother's place once, but it wasn't until we got C-band satellite at home a few years later that I could see it regularly as cable simply wasn't an option well out of town. PBS being free air, however, was an option. I recall watching Don't Look Now on Sunday mornings that fall. (I'd like to know how there can be six Sundays in a month, though.) And then it disappeared and was forgotten - while I remembered that there was such a show, I'd forgotten the name of it. I've mentioned it to some and they seemed surprised there was such a thing. It's so obscure that even IMDB, which now includes TV programs, doesn't have listing for it.

I'm not sure how the two shows compared (YCDTOTV was likely better, benefiting from editing and experience by then), but they were pretty much the same show. YCDTOTV had green slime with the trigger phrase of "I don't know" and the firing squad skits. DLN had yellow slime with a trigger phrase of "Don't blame me" and walking the plank skits. I expect there were other similarities, but it's been a while since October of 1983.

I'm not sure about Don't Look Now, but I'd like to see You Can't Do That On Television air again. Not new episodes, mind, but the originals.

Current Mood: nostalgic

I remember reading a fictional story in TV Guide sometime in the 1980s about how one of the supposed major networks had trouble getting viewers to watch their admittedly shallow shows. Eventually some character suggested that rather than make better shows, which would be expensive and risky, they simply advertise them as "TV-lite" since they didn't demand much attention and let people do other things and still keep up with what little story there was. Thus they could do business as usual and ride the 'lite' bandwagon.

I now watch rather less television than I used to. I don't know what channel each network or station is on, but just a few. When I do watch, it's usually while I'm doing something else. While dressing in the morning I might have the Weather Channel on. If I'm exercising, I'll probably have a TV on. About the only program now that I make a point of watching, or at least checking on, is Nova - and I'll probably be walking on the treadmill for a good part of that.

I've looked at the TV Guide web site to see what's on and found that there's nothing much I really care to watch. If Nova isn't on, then maybe a M*A*S*H re-run if it's one of the better ones, or possibly Storm Stories if I haven't seen it before, which is unlikely. Maybe something on the History channel will be watchable. Most programming is actually annoying or even insulting ("I'm supposed to be entertained by this?"), and that's not even considering the commercials. It's TV-lite and I want something that requires a bit more than that. I want to be engaged in it enough to not notice how long or how fast I'm walking on the treadmill.

Minnesota or National Public Radio has invented a term for an effect of particularly interesting stories: Driveway Moments. A Driveway Moment happens when you're listening to something while driving and find it so interesting that after you get to your destination you stay in the car just to listen to the rest of the story. I haven't seen much of the equivalent on television. Every once in a while there is a Nova or something on the History channel or such that grabs my attention so that even after I've had enough time on the treadmill I'll sit and watch the rest. Those are exceptions.

I don't expect, nor do I want, something with a grand story arc that carries from episode to episode. I want something that if I miss one, it won't cause problems by making the next show not make much sense. I just want each show to stand on its own, be entertaining rather than annoying, and not be just more TV-lite.

Current Mood: blah

The hard drive I ordered arrived yesterday. I now have an unusual, for me, situation: I have a huge hdd but the box it goes in isn't here yet. Wal-Mart still only says "scheduled for delivery on March 20" and nothing like whether it even shipped or where it is sitting now.

Had a sample of Spring yesterday as the temperature climbed to 52 F. Today the high will only be in the 30s, and then it'll warm up again. Yep, it's March. At least this temperature swing isn't too bad. I'm hoping the ice on Hall Lake stays long enough for me to get a few pictures of it as it melts.

Weight control is not going so well. The good part is that I'm still under 220 lbs. The bad news is that I'm still over 215 lbs. Hopefully that can be taken care of this month. Current target: Get under 215 lbs, stay under 215 lbs.

The treadmill is nice, but TV isn't. So far the best thing one has been Storm Stories on the Weather channel, but that repeats after a while and how many tornadoes can you watch before they all seem the same? NOVA can be good, but that's only weekly. Maybe I need to find something to tape for treadmill time. Ideally it'd be about one hour long and commercial-free. However, watchable and an hour long are the important things. There's fast forward and mute for commercials.

The "Freedom Fries" thing? Remarkably silly, yes. What's even more amusing is watching the reaction to it. Where was this reaction when other inanities of Political Correctness were being committed? Oh, wait, I shouldn't mention things like that, it's okkay when one group renames things in inane ways, but not okkay if another group does. Uh huh. I'm laughing at both sides on this one. You just can't make this stuff up. Either side. Reality is terribly funny and funnily terrible all at once. I'm also amused (and bewildered) by how UN-related things are counted. Evidently 18 and 2 are the same number there - and these are supposedly well-educated folks?

Team leader at work didn't get a speakerphone right away but uses such. He got asked if color mattered. He said he didn't care. So they got him a cheap (75% off) speakerphone. Why cheap? Not many want a red phone. Not red, red. Bat-phone red. No, he doesn't keep it under a clear cover.

Current Mood: amused

CNN.com has a story about "Brilliant, But Cancelled" TV shows the Trio cable channel will be re-airing. While most are things I ignored at the time and the descriptions don't do much for me now, there is one that is curious.

Part of the reason is this quotation:

"Each show got roundly great reviews, distinguished itself as being somehow ahead of its time, and, since then, hasn't been rerun on other channels." -- Trio President Lauren Zalaznick

What's interesting about it is that it is incorrect. I suspect he meant "other networks." Also the articles says these shows didn't have enough episodes to live on in syndication (Police Squad, anyone?). Well, one escaped...

Ernie Kovacs Show (Originally aired December 1952-April 1953 on CBS) is one I've seen. And since I wasn't around in 1953, I saw it when it was aired by some local (Wausau, WI) station in the 1970s. I don't recall if I saw more than one episode but I'm sure I saw at least one full episode - and wanted to see more. And the musical bit Kovacs used for his famous Bathtub Scenes (the one part of his show that might be shown on other shows that mention Kovacs at all...) is something I can still recall.

I doubt Trio is on the local cable system, alas.

On a different note, I have yet to watch a TLC show about chariot racing that I think I taped. I'm not sure how much I will watch when I get to it. The comments on rec.equestrian (which I lurk some) said it seemed to focus too much on comparisons to auto racing (hardly a surprise give the way it was promoted.. oy) and not enough on how the horses were trained. There were a couple comments that the training was much more impressive than the racing itself. The example cited was loading into a trailer. While there are "easy loaders" and those.. not so easy.. this was on a very steep ramp, and one horse slipped rather badly, during a thunderstorm. The poster commented that many easy loaders wouldn't have put up with that. Maybe I'll see what's on that tape this weekend.

Current Mood: curious