On this day back in 1963 The Doctor first graced television screens. It would be years before I’d first see him, but fortunately he hung around for quite awhile. He disappeared for a bit in 1989, but he’s back now and better than ever.
What’s really amazing is that he doesn’t look a day over 30*:
*Current actor Matt Smith is 30.
I don’t subscribe to any of the movie channels, but I have to admit that I’m sorely tempted just so I can watch the HBO series The Newsroom. In part because I’m a huge Jeff Daniels fan, but also because of scenes like this one:
For being fiction, there’s a lot of truth in that segment. I’ll bet the Tea Party isn’t very happy with that show right about now.
Can’t wait for this to get underway. I mean, just look at this:
Oh my! The Dalek episode alone looks like it’s going to be amazing. Every single Dalek ever created for a past episode through the original series will be present and accounted for. It’s also the last hurrah for the Ponds and word has it they don’t have a happy ending.
Gonna be a long wait:
Christians have it so hard in America. Persecution rains down upon them from all sides with Big Media being one of the worst offenders. Godless shows and constant attacks on Christian principals abound and now the ultimate offense has arrived: The American Bible Challenge.
GSN said the questions will be “designed to acknowledge and celebrate the Bible’s continuing importance in contemporary life and culture.” Can’t wait for the stoning-of-adulteresses question.
It appears contestants will be selected on the basis of their backstories, because GSN says contestants are going to share them with viewers at home and the studio audience.
And teams of contestants will represent “worthy faith-based organizations,” said GSN, without elaborating as to how it planned to weed out the unworthy ones.
via Jeff Foxworthy to host ‘The American Bible Challenge’ – The Washington Post.
These poor Christians are going to be tasked with demonstrating actually knowing something about the Bible? How unfair is that! Everyone knows you don’t actually have to read the book, that’s what the clergy are for! They do the reading and then tell us how gays are destroying America every Sunday. Isn’t it enough that they get up early on a weekend day and go to church? As if being asked to actually know something about the Bible isn’t enough, the show is going to be hosted by Jeff Foxworthy! Haven’t they suffered enough?!?!
Depending on their screening process (do they weed out the idiots who haven’t actually read the book or not) this could be a highly amusing show to watch. It’d be particularly interesting if they allow atheists to participate given that the average atheist tends to be a bit more well read on the topic than the average Christian tends to be. Foxworthy seems to agree:
“It will be interesting to find out what people really know, and an opportunity to present the Bible in a fun and entertaining way,” Foxworthy added.
What surprises me, however, is that there isn’t at least some outcry on the part of many far Right evangelicals about the show literally trivializing their holy book. I wonder why that is?
Among the show’s consulting producers are members of Odyssey Networks, a nonprofit organization that features on its Web site a video addressing, “Is America Ready to Vote for a Mormon President?”
Oh, I see. Because they had a hand in making the show in the first place. They must be thrilled that they’ve managed to get a Bible-themed show on a non-religious cable channel. Now the question is: Will anyone watch it?
If you’re a fan of the revived Doctor Who series then you probably know that the show has a long history — this November with be its 50th anniversary — but may not have seen much, if any, of the originals series. If you’ve got 9 minutes to spare then you can get a taste via the this tribute video that counts the stories from 1963 through the 2011 Christmas special plus various spin-offs and specials:
Probably one of the more comprehensive overviews I’ve seen considering that there’s still 106 episodes missing from the BBC archives. Spotted many of my favorites from both the old and new series. Will have to make a point of hunting some of them down.
If you’re a member of one of the two predominant political parties in this country then a good guess can be made as to which television programs you like to watch. Or at least, that’s what this survey done for Entertainment Weekly seems to indicate.
Here’s their list with my notes as to whether or not I’m a fan of the show named:
LIBERAL-DEMOCRAT FAVORITES:
– The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report (Comedy Central): As you might expect.
I do watch both of these shows though, as mentioned in the last podcast, I’m a bigger fan of TDS than Colbert.
– 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation (NBC): Literate media-savvy comedies score high among Dems in general, notes Experian-Simmons senior marketing manager John Fetto. “Sarcastic humor is always a hook for them,” he adds.
Don’t care for either one of these, but then there are very few sitcoms I do care for. The Big Bang Theory being one of them.
– The View (ABC): Shows that skew female tend to do better among Dems, while male-friendly shows tend to do perform higher among Republicans.
Can’t stand The View, but then I’m not really its demographic.
– Glee (Fox)
Fuck no.
– Modern Family (ABC): Last year, the progressive Glee and Modern Family scored surprisingly strong among both political leanings. Among conservatives this year, the shows still do fairly well, but have dropped out of their top ranks.
Nope. Watched one episode. Didn’t care for it.
– It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)
Again, not a huge fan of sitcoms and this one is just strange in a way I don’t find particularly funny.
– Treme (HBO): GOP Kryptonite. Not only a Dem favorite, but so unpopular among Republicans that the report scores the show with a “*” because not enough conservatives in the study group had actually watched it.
Never seen it because I don’t subscribe to HBO or any of the other premium movie channels.
– Cougar Town (ABC)
Another fuck no. I’m surprised that this show and others like it (e.g. Desperate Housewives) do well at all, but I suppose watching people be shitty to each other, especially rich people, has always been popular.
– The Late Show With David Letterman and The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson(CBS): Dems favor late-night programming, with one big exception that we’ll see below.
Well, one out of two ain’t bad. Don’t watch Letterman anymore. He hasn’t been particularly funny or interesting for years, but I record Ferguson nightly to watch the next day.
Also in the mix: The Soup (E!), Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Adult Swim), Raising Hope (Fox), Saturday Night Live (NBC), The Office (NBC), Project Runway (Lifetime), Shameless(Showtime), Parenthood (NBC), Conan (TBS).
No, sometimes, no, no, no, fuck no, no, no, no.
Of that short list I’ll watch ATH every so often, but I rarely understand it. Probably because I’m old.
CONSERVATIVE-REPUBLICAN FAVORITES:
– Swamp Loggers (Discovery) and Top Shot (History): Gritty documentary-style work-related reality shows on cable index really strongly with conservative Republicans. Swamp Loggers is particularly polarizing.
No and no. Does it surprise anyone that these two shows are hot with Republicans? Rednecks swinging axes and gun owners showing off shootin’ skills. If you could somehow work NASCAR into that mix the orgasms some folks would have would give them aneurysms.
Hmmm….
– The Bachelor (ABC): They also tend to gravitate toward broadcast reality competition shows.
No. And I have to say that I’ve very surprised that this is popular with Republicans given that it seems to be somewhat denigrating of the whole marriage thing.
– Castle (ABC): Ranks fairly high among Dems, too.
I will sometimes watch Castle simply because it has Nathan Fillion in it, but I don’t make a point of it.
– Mythbusters (Discovery)
I’m a huge fan and I find it very surprising the it’s popular with Republicans given i’s very pro-science, anti-bullshit bent. If I had to guess I’d say it’s because they blow shit up on a regular basis and the Republicans sit through all the science-y shit just so they can see stuff explode. They probably watch it with the sound turned off so they don’t accidentally learn something.
– Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy, American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Swamp People (History): If you’re a Republican candidate looking to raise money, put ads on History.
No, no, no, and no. Not at all surprised at the popularity of these shows among Republicans.
– The Middle (ABC): Does well among libs, too.
Never even heard of it before.
– The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (NBC): “Did you hear about this? Yeah, this is true: Jay Leno is the late-night choice among conservatives…”
Not a fan. Not sure why Republicans would be.
– The Biggest Loser (NBC)
Nope, though not surprised the Republicans like it.
– Hawaii Five-O, NCIS, The Mentalist (CBS): Popular crime dramas — except the left-wingLaw & Order franchise — tend to draw a conservative crowd.
No, no, YES! Again, very surprised The Mentalist is a hit given that the lead-character is big on tearing down people’s delusional beliefs in psychics and other supernatural phenomena.
Also: Dancing With the Stars results show (ABC), Man vs. Wild (Discovery), Auction Kings(Discovery), Wheel of Fortune (syndi), Top Gear (BBC America).
No, no, no, no, and no. Only surprised by Top Gear being popular with them as it’s a furriner show. Granted, it’s a car show, but not of the sort that most Republicans seem enthralled with.
This probably explains why I’m an Independent. I just can’t seem to conform to either party’s expectations.
This is awesomesauce!
I got a refreshing change in the SEB Mailbag the other day. In place of the usual poorly worded, barely coherent ranting I usually find there was a bit of fan mail that contained a Question of Utmost Importance! This is such an unusual occurrence that I thought I should go ahead and answer it here.
So here it is:
Hi SEB, I’m here to be a pointless distraction.
I’ve been a fan of your blog for a while, as I’ve always enjoyed the well-worded approach of telling people to go fuck themselves. I’m not just sending this to shower you with praise, however.
Being a person of reasonable knowledge of things happening on the internet, you’re probably aware of the sudden and unexpected fanbase of the newest “My Little Pony” show. This being sort of an interesting topic nowadays, and because I’ve got nothing better to do, I thought I’d ask you what your opinion was on the whole thing. I noticed you didn’t mention it on your blog, so you probably don’t feel too strongly about it, but I figured I’d ask anyways. That is all.
- Your pointlessly inquisitive reader,
kripto
Hiya Kripto! I’m always happy to be showered with praise as I was a middle child growing up and was starved of attention. Which probably explains why I’ve been blogging for so long. If someone gives me the slightest bit of attention I can’t help but soak it up as much as I can.
Anyway, yes! I am very aware of the huge fan base the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show has garnered outside of its target demographic of young girls and tweens. I am also completely baffled by it.
You see, I’m old enough to remember when the original MLP toys were introduced some 30 years ago in 1981 when I was a mere 14-years-old. Like most toy companies back then, the first thing Hasbro did was hire someone to turn it into a 30 minute advertisement cartoon series. Well, that’s not entirely true. They started with prime-time specials in ’84 and ’85, had a feature length film in ’86 (voiced by relatively big name stars like Danny DeVito no less!), and that was followed by the 30 minute ads TV series that same year. As I recall, the toy line was a huge success for Hasbro and the commercials were near impossible to escape if you were watching anything remotely kid-oriented.
Here’s an example from 1986:
I almost went into diabetic shock watching that clip. Also, why the hell are there so many people uploading vintage 1980 toy commercials to YouTube? This was just one of a ridiculous number of 80′s toy ads I was able to find, many of which were for My Little Pony.
Anyway, the original cartoon series wasn’t quite as successful as the toys and was canceled in 1987 after two seasons. There was an attempt to revive the series in 1992 with My Little Pony Tales, but it didn’t catch on and died a mercifully quick death. Sometime in the 2000′s they revived the toy line and did a number of direct-to-video animated shows that I have no idea how successful they were. You can read all about the original series and the toys over at TV Tropes if you really want to know more about it. I’ve managed to remain blissfully unaware of most of MLP’s history since the 80′s faded from view, but apparently someone couldn’t let sleeping dogs stay dead (or however the hell the expression goes) and decided it was time to revive its rotting corpse once more in October of 2010.
According to the folks at TV Tropes, it was Lauren Faust who took on the challenge of bringing it back. In the past she’s worked on other cartoon series such as The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. This probably goes a long way to explaining why the show has attracted fans outside of its target audience as both of those shows tended to do the same. It probably doesn’t hurt that the show’s creators interact with fans on the Internet and often make references to things the fan base has come up with in the show itself.
I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point after the debut of Cartoon Network there was a trend toward making cartoons that adults could watch with their kids without feeling like they were losing IQ points in the process. Many of which were good enough that some adults watched them regardless of whether their kids were fans. I know a lot of adults who are huge fans of Spongebob Squarepants and the aforementioned The Powerpuff Girls. I have been quite fond of shows such as Courage the Cowardly Dog and Invader Zim in the past and today I’m a huge fan of Adventure Time and The Amazing Adventures of Gumball. It seems that the folks behind MLP:FiM have taken that same approach with the revival.
Again, from the folks at TV Tropes:
The first season was helmed by Lauren Faust, a highly accomplished, Emmy Award-nominated animator — for example, she was the writer and director of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. Friendship is Magic is her attempt to rescue the genre of girls’ cartoons by presenting a clever show with a strong and diverse cast of female characters who aren’t pre-occupied with fashion and boys. Her goal was to create an intelligent show for girls that boys and grown-ups could also watch without wanting to shoot themselves. By all accounts, she has done an admirable job of reaching that goal. Following the end of the first season, Faust stepped down as the show’s executive producer, but she will continue to work with the show as a consulting producer through production of the second season.
The show proved an overnight sensation on the internet, and even before the first season was over, it had spawned image macros and countless forum threads full of speculation and discussion; it also led to lots of males having existential crises about enjoying a “girl’s cartoon” so much. It also provides one of the best examples of Troper Critical Mass in action: one season of a show ostensibly for little girls contains hundreds upon hundreds of tropes, a Characters page, fanfics, and legitimate fanbases for every character under the sun.
So, after all of that, let’s get to your question of what I think about all of this: Personally, I’m deeply amused by it.
OK, I am a fan of at least this one pony.
I’ve not watched the new show myself for two reasons. First, I’m still deeply scarred by the endless 80′s commercials and the horrible original show. I don’t recall why I ever saw the original show, but somewhere along the way I was exposed to it and it’s probably a huge factor in why I’m so cynical today. It was exactly the kind of mindless pablum put together by a committee that had no other goal than to maximize toy sales without spawning any kind of controversy that might negatively impact the brand that I think is partially responsible for most of the FOX News fans of today. To be fair, shows like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Transformers were pretty much the same except aimed at boys.
The second reason is because I don’t want to risk becoming a fan. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that someone took one of the worst shows aimed at young girls in the 80′s and turned it into something that’s not only intelligent, but has garnered a following well beyond the group it was created for. Nor is it a concern over it being a challenge to my masculinity — I’ve been known to paint my toenails on occasion. I’m just worried my head would explode from trying to reconcile my deep cynicism over the original show with how good the new one is.
However, the fact that it’s blown up into a huge meme is what I’m deeply amused by. There’s a certain amount of incongruity with, say, seeing a MLP image macro applied to a discussion thread on Fark or some other forum that I find funny. The fact that it’s gotten big enough to get a shout out from no less than Stephen Colbert is also highly amusing. Overall I’m supportive of the meme for no reason other than I appreciate the non-conformity of it and the general weirdness it promotes. Plus it has generated a lot of fun sub-memes such as the unofficial character known as “Derpy Hooves”.
If you’d like to read more about the spread of the meme you’ll find the MLP:FiM entry at Know Your Meme right up your alley.
I watch and read a lot of non-fiction. The Discovery Channels are frequently tuned in on my TV because they have so many shows that I love to watch. The History Channel, though, not so much. Mainly because whenever I flip by it it seems like it’s either A) something World War II related most of which I’ve seen already or B) one of the crap shows like Ancient Aliens which lot of these channels, including the Discovery ones, program for the idiots in the audience who buy into that nonsense.
Well, yesterday I flipped by the History Channel and fell into the lap of a marathon showing of How The States Got Their Shapes and I was hooked. Each show has a theme such as “Living on the Edge” and “Mouthing Off” which connects the stories they cover and it’s absolutely fascinating. As an example, to this day there is a dispute between Tennessee and Georgia over where their border happens to be. Here’s a small clip from the show that explains why:
In the episode “Mouthing Off” they don’t cover so much the shape of the States as they are, but as they would be if you were to base them on their regional accents. The first episode, themed “A River Runs Through It”, talks about how water and access to it has defined a number of States. I was surprised at just how much I learned watching this show, which apparently debuted back in the spring and I’m only just finding out about it and I’m hoping they’ll continue the series.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out when it repeats on the History Channel. If you’re anything like me you’ll enjoy it.