Quite a few months ago I had noticed that Dream On - Seasons 1 & 2 were available for purchase. Back when this show was on, I used to watch it periodically and really enjoyed it. Last weekend I broke down and picked it up and Jonna and I have been working our way through the episodes.

I had forgotten just how funny and entertaining this show was. I believe this was the first (or at least one of the first) HBO original comedies that had come out back in the 90’s that grew out of John Landis’ interest in creating a show around all of the old then unused TV footage that Universal Studios had in its libraries. He recruited David Crane and Marta Kauffman (who later went on to create a little TV show called ‘Friends’) as writers.

This adult oriented sitcom centers around, Martin Tupper, a recently divorced man book editor at a small boutique publishing firm and his foray back into the dating world. Martin spent a lot of time watching TV when he was a child, and throughout the episodes situations cause flashbacks to scenes from these old shows, which just makes the show that much funnier. Adding to the hilarity is Martins best friend, Eddie Charles, a exploitation-TV talk show host a la Geraldo, his assistant Toby, and the near perfect but never seen husband if his ex-wife, “Dr. Richard Stone”.

I’ve really found this show quite entertaining and still fresh after 16 years. Each episode is 30 minutes, so it doesn’t take a lot of time to blow through a disc.

If you’d like to spend some time watching a very entertaining and funny show, pick up this show at Amazon. I would be quite surprised if you were disappointed.

Related posts

• The Adventures of Pete & Pete Season One Available on DVD (0)
• Star Wars - The Legacy Revealed (0)
• Millenium the Third and Final Season Released on DVD (0)
• links for 2007-08-06 (0)
• Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel (4)
• Apple UK Mac / PC Commercials (0)

[ This posting was written about a month ago (around 9/12) ... I just ran out of things to write about, so I'm publishing this ]

I came across this article this morning. It seems that The Exorcism of Emily Rose has struck a chord with people (at least as far as getting them in the theater) as it grossed $30.2M over the weekend making it the third largest September opening ever, despite reviews that pretty much mirror mine.

Apparently I’m not the only one interested in the concept of exorcism — which makes me feel much more normal.

Given the box office numbers though, I’m inclined to wonder what makes these types of movies so attractive to people that they have to go see it? I think that those who were raised hearing about how Satan and demons were the cause of everything bad are more inclined to go see them just out of the curiosity raised through years of hearing about it ad nauseum and finally being able to see something that was supposedly “true”. I think that I really like seeing other peoples interpretation of this phenomenon and the events that surround them.

Just to be clear, I do not believe in actual demonic possession. I do believe, however, that other people believe in it — and can believe in it so much that they can manifest behavior consistent with it if they do not learn to deal with the guilt instilled in them while being initiated, as a child or as an adult, into a religious group in which a fear of Satan forms much of the cornerstone of the doctrine that is taught.

Much of the above is why I also enjoyed the second season of Millennium so much this time around, while “not getting it” when it was actually on TV. Much of the content was around religious beliefs and the fulfilling of prophecy as believed by the “Millennium Group”. A lot of it had to do with what the Millennium Group was doing in order to ensure the outcomes that they believed would signal the end of the world. For some reason the second time around, that really intrigued me.

The second season of the show was quite different than the first. From what I have heard on interviews on the sets, Chris Carter became very busy with the X Files during the second season of Millennium and gave control over to Glenn Morgan and James Wong. The show became quite different than the first season, focusing on the Millennium Group and quite a bit of its religious philosophy and apocalyptic beliefs. Many of the shows took on an almost surreal atmosphere, very unrealistic and “out there”. One episode specifically (I can’t remember the episode but it was towards the end of the season) had very much of a “Natural Born Killers” feel to it — very random and disjointed.

Season Three, which we started watching (we got through almost 3 discs), feels like a melding of Season 1 and Season 2. There is quite a bit of the religious and / or spiritual aspects to what we’ve seen so far, however it is much less surreal than Season 2, getting “back to the basics” of what made the first season so great.

I’m still a little disconnected from Season 3 as compared to Season 1, but I am still enjoying the shows.

Related posts

• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (1)
• Vacation Movie Watching (0)
• The Grudge: Now I have One (0)
• The Gartner of Exorcists (0)
• The Final Cut (0)
• Star Wars Trilogy DVD Release (0)
• Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith (1)

There are some advertising campaigns that just grab you and you really enjoy watching. I was pretty impressed the the campaigns that Geico had going for a while, but Quiznos has taken the cake with their spokesperson, Baby Bob.

I don’t know what it is about this little guy, but I love watching these commercials. Its so refreshing to see advertising with a little creativity and fun baked in!

Aside from Baby Bob, the other set of commercials that I really enjoy watching for some reason are the Smilin’ Bob commercials from Enzyte.

Smilin’ Bob cracks me up.

I think the thing I like most about all three companies mentioned here is that they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously. This is the most irritating thing I find about business is the idea that there is some “proper” way to represent yourself and that you have to appear stodgy and serious or you aren’t professional.

In my opinion, there is a really fine line between professional and boring. More than that, the more concerned companies are with their “professional image” the more I am inclined to feel they’re fake and want to take my business elsewhere. I’d rather deal with humans than robots with no sense of humor.

Well, there you have it. Some random observations after watching a Quiznos commercial. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Related posts

• WordPress commercial arm to compete against TypePad (0)
• The Nightmare of Cancelling AOL (0)
• The Long Tail - Could the Labels Be Right? (0)
• The Flickr vs. Zoomr Thing … (0)
• Study: CIOs to increase hiring (0)
• Quote of the Week by Mike Arrington (0)
• McDonald’s to spin off Chipotle chain (0)

Millennium - The Complete Third Season has been released on DVD. We’ve picked it up, but haven’t started watching it yet. I’m pretty sure this is the season of the show I missed when it was on. The second season wound up being a little too weird for me at the time (I actually like it after watching it on DVD now) and I quit watching the show.

I’m looking forward to seeing the final season.

Related posts

• Star Wars - The Legacy Revealed (0)
• DVD: Dream On Seasons 1 & 2 (0)
• Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel (4)
• Apple UK Mac / PC Commercials (0)

I do not like what we today call Reality TV. You know, shows like Survivor, Big Brother, Wife Swap, and all of those shows like that. They are all fake and pretty much stupid.

I do, however, like TV about real stuff. Shows like Mythbusters, Cold Case Files, Biography, and shows like that. At times, I’m even enjoying Dog the Bounty Hunter. The best shows are shows in which you can learn something and still get a laugh out of them (Mythbusters is the role model for shows like that).

Andy has been telling Jonna and I about a show called Dirty Jobs that he thought was hilarious. At first we resisted watching it, thinking it was just another stupid reality show. We finally gave in over the last week and watched an episode.

This show is great. The host, Mike Rowe, is nothing short of hilarious. The premise of the show is that the host finds the dirtiest jobs that people do for a living, and attempts to do them on the show. In the episode we saw this week, he attempted to make a surfboard (dirtier than I thought it would be), harvest honey from bees (creeped Jonna out to no end), and clean a ’sludge tank’. During each of these tasks he was brilliantly funny, in a very dry way. We laughed all the way through the show.

If you are a Mythbusters fan, chances are you’ll love Dirty Jobs. Check it out (it’s on Tuesdays at 8pm CT) and leave comments up here telling me what you think.

Related posts

• The Grudge: Now I have One (0)
• The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick (0)
• Star Wars - The Legacy Revealed (0)
• Ribfest 2006 in Naperville (1)
• Paul Stanley: Live To Win (0)
• Off The Rails - The Review (0)
• Movies: Superman Returns (0)

In a previous post I had mentioned finding Wil Wheatons blog after seeing him mention it on VH1’s 100 Greatest Kid Stars.

Wil has answered a load of questions on Slashdot in an article called Wil Wheaton Strikes Back and it’s a pretty interesting read. Check it out.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Sunday night we watched The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, on TLC. This is a documentary that originally aired in England, I believe.

It is the story of Jonny Kennedy, a man who was born with a genetic skin condition called Epidermolysis Bullosa, which causes the skin to essentially blister and fall off at the slightest touch. Jonny was 36 years old at the time of his death, and agreed to do this documentary to help raise awareness of the condition and help get funding for research for its cure.

The documentary gives you a look at Jonny’s life and the constant pain he was in as a result of the condition. The most amazing thing about the documentary however, is the look at Jonny and the great outlook on life and wonderful sense of humor this guy had in the face of a horrible affliction.

The show was touching, as you watch Jonny prepare for his death after being diagnosed with skin cancer, apparently a pretty common outcome for people with EB.

The only complaint I have is the extreme amount of advertising that stations air during this type of show. It was completely out of control, I’m assuming due to the visibility of the show. Its sad that everything turns into an advertising blitz these days, especially since finding something that is actually worth watching on TV is such a chore these days.

Just a clue to the networks: a commercial break every five minutes is unnacceptable, m’kay?

Related Links

• The DebRA Home Page
• Jonny Kennedy Page at Debra.org
• Death is Freedom, Life is a Lesson - Article in English Newspaper

Related posts

• No related posts.

So I’m sitting around last night watching VH1’s 100 Greatest Kid Stars, hosted by Christopher Knight.

One of the kids they brought up was Wil Wheaton, the kid from Star Trek : The Next Generation. As I’m watching the show, I hear him say something about his blog and make a mental note to check out his blog the next time I’m on-line.

Now, normally with mental notes, they last for about 3 minutes and are never found again and I never remember to look at what I thought I needed to look at. But when I woke up this morning the first thought I had as I went through the news was “… wait a minute, I have to check out that Star Trek guys blog”.

Wil, who used to play Wesley Crusher on Star Trek : The Next Generation, is now an actor, writer, blogger, and geek. His blog, wilweaton.net, is actually a pretty interesting read. He’s definitely got a sense of humor, as can be seen on his FAQ page. This blog just might become a regular read for me. It’s definitely gotten my curiosity up on his books, Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek. I just might have to pick them up sometime.

Now one might ask, “What could I possibly get out of reading that guy from Star Treks blog”? Well, I found a reference to The Geek Code, apparently a sign of status in the geek community. Now I have one. Do you?

---–BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK---–
Version: 3.1
GIT d- s:-- a C++@ ULS+++@ P+++@ L+++>$ E@ W+++$>$ N+@ !o !K-- 
w+++@ O@ M !V-- PS+>$ !PE !Y+ PGP>$ t+>$ !5 X+++>$ !R- tv+++>$ 
b++>$ DI++ !D G>$ e? h--->$ r+++@ y+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

To decode the above code, copy it and paste it into the Geek Decoder.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Finally, The Adventures of Pete & Pete - Season 1 has been released on DVD.

From 1993 - 1996, Nickelodeon aired this series about two brothers named Pete and their adventures in the town of Wellsville. This was the one show that Kelsi would watch when she was small that I looked forward to watching with her. It was the event of our weekends together on Sundays at 11:00a.

The episodes were funny, intelligent, and just fun to watch. A while back we found them on Noggin and began watching them again, wondering when they would finally be released to home video.

This show brings back a lot of great memories. Unfortunately, while Kelsi found them at the mall (we were shopping for eighth grade graduation clothes), we had to take her home before she got a chance to watch them with me this time around.

If you find these in the video store, grab them and give them a try. The show is a crack up and from my perspective probably one of the best situation comedies I’ve ever seen on TV. It also had one of the catchiest theme songs (”Hey Sandy” by Polaris) that I’ve ever heard, which can be found on the album Music From the Adventures of Pete & Pete.

Related Sites:

• The Web Site of Pete and Pete
• The Adventures of Pete and Pete
• Krebweb - The Pete & Pete Webring
• Reflections on Pete & Pete, by Nick Carr
• Pete and Pete at JumpTheShark.com

Related posts

• WLUP “Loop Girl” Interviews with Steve Vai at the House of Blues on September 21. (1)
• Why Mac’s Suck (0)
• Video: How Open Source Projects Survive Poisonous People (And You Can Too) (0)
• Topless Car Wash (0)
• The Truth about 911 - A Video (0)
• The Landlord (A Video) (0)
• Steve Vai Sofa by Cesar Huesca - Saturday Music (0)

Just when you thought they would be out of ideas for reality TV, the folks at A&E come up with a show like Intervention, which airs Sunday nights at 9pm Central time.

This show is as addicting as the gambling and drugs its participants are hooked on. Once you start, you can’t stop watching it.

The premise of the show is that the participants volunteer to do a documentary on addiction and the cameras follow them around as they talk about their behavior. The have no idea that the whole point is to get them into a room with their loved ones and push them into rehab.

The most disturbing episode thus far was episode 2, about a 31 year old man named Gabe who was a compulsive gambler. His view on life was that it was his parents “obligation” to pay his debts. These parents mortgaged their house to help pay his $500,000 gambling debts and the guy still wasn’t satisfied. The guy threw nothing short of temper tantrums every time he didn’t get his way. It was the most painful example of someone who refuses to take responsibility for his own actions that I had ever seen. You have to keep an eye out for reruns of this episode. It’s amazingly disturbing.

The only episode I’ve missed so far is the one on video game addiction. I’m keeping my eye out for that one.

Oh, big news. I’ve been asked to participate in a show documentary about blogging. I’ll let you know how that goes …

Related posts

• No related posts.

Browsing through Suncoast Video yesterday, we found that Quantum Leap - The Complete Third Season has been released to DVD.

This show, during the time that it was on, was my absolute favorite on TV. The third season includes the two part “The Leap Home” episodes, where Sam leaps back into himself when he is 16 in part one to win a basketball game. During this time he tries to save his father and brother from dying.

The second part of the episode, Sam leaps into a member of his brothers squad in Viet Nam, where he tries to prevent Toms death on April 8, 1969.

These are the two episodes we got through last night. I’m hoping to keep chipping away at the set through the rest of the week.

We found the set quite a bit cheaper over at Wal-mart, so you might want to check there before hitting the usual channels (unless of course you want to click one of the links above and give me a cut of your purchase).

Related posts

• No related posts.

Johnny Carson passed away this morning at the age of 79.

I can’t tell you how much I used to look forward to The Tonight Show back when he was the host. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve actually watched the show since May of 1992.

He was definitely a one of a kind and it was a sad day when he left television.

There is more information available at CNN.com, an article on E-Online and one more on msnbc.com.

Update:
CNN has Your Johnny Carson Memories, which is a pretty cool tribute. Some of the moments we all enjoyed are mentioned in this one.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Yesterday we were out at Spring Hill Mall and made our usual obligatory stop at SunCoast when we found Millennium: The Complete Second Season sitting out in the new releases section. We also found The X-Files - The Complete First Season for half off. The X-Files is another one of those shows we really liked, but the DVD sets have just been too expensive to buy.

This comes on the heels of finding Quantam Leap Season 2 in stores as mentioned previously. I think we’re covered as far as the “500 channels and nothing to watch but reality TV” syndrome that we’ve been suffering from lately.

I think the release of old TV favorites is probably my favorite part of the DVD revolution. I find it so cool to be able to sit down whenever I feel like it and pop in one of these shows.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Quantum Leap - The Complete Second Season was released recently to DVD. This was my favorite show "back in the day", and I would make sure I was home to watch it every Wednesday. I just didn’t know what to do when it switched to Friday’s and was on at the same time as Americas Most Wanted - my other favorite show at the time.

Boy, this reminds me of the time when watching TV was actually something you looked forward to doing. I’m SO tired of reality TV shows at this point. It’s all you find these days …

Related posts

• No related posts.

I have been waiting for what seems like forever for the DVD release of Seinfeld to happen. I am one of those people who get to be a fan of a show the last season it is on the air. I started watching Seinfeld religiously during the second to last season and before I knew it, the show had run its course.

Since it has been in syndication, we have watched it nightly on TBS. I initially thought that the first three seasons were ones that I had never seen. It wound up, that I have seen almost all of them.

However, the DVD sets are still worth it. There are a lot of interviews with Larry David and the cast and crew of the show that were really fun to watch. The most interesting thing to me as we were watching all of the extras were how much of the shows came out of the real life experiences of the writers and were not just made up situations that "would never happen". This one thing in and of itself facinated me enough to renew my interest in the show as a whole.

Extras include a “Making of” documentary in three parts, interviews with the cast and crew, "Inside Looks" on almost every episode, commentaries by the cast and writers, and many more.

One of the really fun to watch extras in the set was called "Kramer vs. Kramer" which shows the evolution of the Kramer character from the real life Kenny Kramer to the character we know as “Cosmo Kramer”. This was also a very interesting section of the DVD, especially the inside look at just how seriously Michael Richards took his work.

Watching these sets was a great way to spend the long Thanksgiving weekend. These two boxes are a great gift for any Seinfeld fan.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go spend some time walking around to get the blood flowing back to my lower extremities. Three seasons of anything is too much time to spend sitting down!

Related posts

• No related posts.