Double Wired deadline today, plus tweaking a soon-to-launch Web project related to The Skies Belong to Us. Back tomorrow with something slightly more erudite than footage of Loni Anderson strutting across a field of broken glass.
Entries Tagged as 'TV'
Maximum Entertainment
February 26th, 2013 · Comments Off on Maximum Entertainment
Tags:Circus of the Stars·circuses·daredevils·Loni Anderson·TV
Grudge Match
February 14th, 2013 · Comments Off on Grudge Match
When Senator Warren B. Rudman recently passed, I was struck by the concluding section of his New York Times obituary, which contained an anecdote that attested to his stubbornness: Mr. Rudman feuded with his alma mater long after he had left its campus. In 1952, Syracuse University withheld his bachelor’s diploma because he had refused […]
Tags:baseball·politics·psychology·Shoeless Joe Jackson·sports·The Wire·TV·Warren Rudman
The Beginning of the End
October 15th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Beginning of the End
So today’s the deadline for the final draft of my next book; with any luck, I’ll have some bound galleys to give away before Christmas. It’s been a long, draining process—thirty-eight months of reporting, writing, and furious pacing about my shoebox-sized home office. Tough to believe that I’m just a few hundred checked endnotes away […]
Tags:books·Morgan Freeman·The Electric Company·The Skies Belong to Us·TV
Knockoffs: Supertrain
August 3rd, 2012 · 7 Comments
Granted, I haven’t always been great about keeping up with Microkhan series dedicated to pop culture—both Bad Movie Friday and The Ponchos have fallen by the wayside over the years. But that isn’t going to stop me from launching a whole new series, one dedicated to craven acts of imitation which reveal the cynicism behind […]
Tags:Knockoffs·nuclear power·Supertrain·Three Mile Island·TV
Working Overtime, Fighting Crime
January 26th, 2012 · 1 Comment
Getting thwacked by this Wired story I’m working on, which requires me to comprehend the nuances of both ribonucleic acid and artificial intelligence. Suffice to say, my brain’s full-up for the next twenty-four hours; see you back here shortly.
Tags:animation·M.A.S.K.·technology·TV·Wired
Lone Star
March 29th, 2011 · 2 Comments
Heading off to West Texas for a Wired reporting trip today, so light posting for the next lil’ while. Until I manage to secure myself some dependable WiFi in the lightly populated triangle between Lubbock, Abilene, and Wichita Falls, please make do with highlights of the late-period Fly Girls. Sad to think such joyously athletic […]
Hydrofoil Engaged
March 16th, 2011 · Comments Off on Hydrofoil Engaged
If I don’t get some serious writing done on my behind-schedule Wired feature today, I fear that all will be lost. Wish me luck, and brace for tomorrow’s post about gambling in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Tags:games·Pole Position·TV
From the Department of the Obvious
October 29th, 2010 · 3 Comments
This week’s Bad Movie Friday entrant bends the rules a bit: it’s actually a network mini-series, a once glorious TV genre that has sadly fallen out of favor in the modern era. Rage of Angels: The Story Continues was one of many Sidney Sheldon potboilers to appear on the small screen during the 1980s, and […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·movies·Rage of Angels·Sidney Sheldon·TV
The Failed Heartthrob
October 15th, 2010 · Comments Off on The Failed Heartthrob
There’s a great scene in Robert Altman’s The Player in which Tim Robbins’ slithery movie producer stops a writer who’s in the middle of pitching a script idea. The poor scribe, it seems, made the mistake of implying that his proposed film would feature a TV star in the main role. This notion makes Robbins […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·Family Ties·movies·Robert Altman·Scott Valentine·The Player·TV
Emerging from the Desert
September 30th, 2010 · Comments Off on Emerging from the Desert
I made it through my Vega$ trip without having to set foot inside a Pawn America storefront, so I consider the trip a success. Voyaging back to Microkhan world headquarters today, so please enjoy the vintage Atari ad above as I hurtle through the air at upwards of 500 miles-per-hour. Catch you tomorrow.
Tags:advertising·Atari·games·Hong Kong·TV
Fleet Street’s Dubious Science
August 27th, 2010 · Comments Off on Fleet Street’s Dubious Science
Apologies for the late start to the day, but Microkhan Jr. decided to rob the clan of some much-needed sleep in the wee hours. Unable to get back to the Sandman’s realm once the kid had been pacified, I passed the time by catching up on The World at War. Lots of good stuff there, […]
Tags:Britain·pseudoscience·racism·The World at War·TV·World War II
If You’re Feeling Sinister
August 5th, 2010 · 10 Comments
Last night, I finally started working my way through The World at War, which I’ve long heard is the be-all and end-all of World War II documentaries. With only a single episode under my belt, I’m not yet equipped to verify the veracity of that statement. But there’s no disputing the filmmakers’ skills at digging […]
Krinklebein’s Poor Russian
May 28th, 2010 · Comments Off on Krinklebein’s Poor Russian
We’re still in northern Michigan with the Grand Empress, and you’re hopefully prepping for a raucous three-day weekend. As you pack or purchase beer, enjoy the sonic stylings of a talking fish and his feline arch-nemesis—one of Microkhan Jr.’s favorites. It really is a fine piece of animation, save for the fact that Mr. Krinklebein’s […]
Tags:cartoons·Cat in the Hat·music·Russia·TV
This World, Then the Visigoths
January 5th, 2010 · Comments Off on This World, Then the Visigoths
Over the past several days, no ad campaign has been as inescapable as the one hyping Food Network’s recently aired “Super Chef Battle”. The innumerable commercials and Web banners that ran in support of the event made it seem like a culinary version of a Thunderdome match, crossed with the Apollo Creed versus Ivan Drago […]
Tags:ancient history·Croesus·food·Food Network·Herodotus·Mario Batali·Roman Empire·TV
Kenya, Continued
December 16th, 2009 · Comments Off on Kenya, Continued
Still plugging away on the Kenya piece for Wired, so few if any deep thoughts this afternoon. Fortunately, The Tubes provide us with a quick and easy way to keep the Microkhan mojo going—namely, the priceless ad above for C-3PO cereal. This breakfast treat not only further lined George Lucas’s burgeoning pockets with cash; it […]
Tags:1980s·advertising·breakfast cereal·C-3PO·cigarettes·Star Wars·TV
The Peace Shield
November 9th, 2009 · 1 Comment
In response to Friday’s post on the launch of our “Bulletproof Project,” a commenter wryly noted that we should include the Strategic Defense Initiative among our list of magical shields. That quip naturally reminded us of this classic ad, in which a pro-SDI group tried to break down the appeal of Star Wars into the […]
A State That’s Untouchable, Like Eliot Ness
October 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Instead of hitting you with our weekly Bad Movie Friday entry, we’ve decided to round out our cough-syrup trilogy with a classic ad: Oddjob shilling for Vicks Formula 44. Good thing there’s no narcotic in there to slow him down. And the phenylpropanolamine should make him a much more energetic opponent for Mr. Bond. We’re […]
Tags:advertising·James Bond·medicine·movies·Oddjob·TV·Vicks Formula 44
The Waga Toso Loophole
October 13th, 2009 · 5 Comments
We’re in the midst of watching The Nazis: A Warning from History, which really should be required viewing for anyone who casually throws around Hitler analogies when discussing contemporary politicians. It’s chilling stuff through-and-through, loaded with interviews with unrepentant party members and victims of persecution alike. The series essentially argues that the Third Reich was […]
Tags:Adolf Hitler·books·Germany·Mein Kampf·Nazism·politics·TV
Beastmaster Errata
August 10th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Look, we’re big enough Mongolian monarchs to admit when we’ve goofed. And that’s exactly what appears to be the case with last week’s Bad Movie Friday post about the 1982 Marc Singer vehicle The Beastmaster. We riffed about Singer’s apparent refusal to save the life of the ferret that had just helped pluck him from […]
Tags:animals·Bad Movie Friday·errata·ferrets·Marc Singer·movies·rodents·The Beastmaster·TV
Mr. T, Copyright Defender
July 29th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Huge apologies for the string of bummer posts over the past few days—murder-for-hire, arms smuggling, and gulags do not a happy Microkhan reader make, we now realize. So let us make it up to you by sharing an episode of Mr. T’s eponymous (and hugely underrated) Reagan-era cartoon. It involves stuntmen, ninjas, and movie piracy, […]
Tags:1980s·cartoons·Clubber Lang·Mr. T·TV
Motrin, Motrin Everywhere
July 24th, 2009 · Comments Off on Motrin, Motrin Everywhere
Apologies for the super-late start today. Microkhan Jr.’s struggling with an aggressive virus that landed the whole crew in the ER last night. Naps, kiddie Motrin, and maybe a touch of kumis are in order, then we hope to catch y’all in a few. In the meantime, reward yourself with a week well done by […]
Animal Could Have Done It
July 20th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Tending to Microkhan Jr. has given us a newfound appreciation for great kiddie fare of yore, most notably the late, great Muppet empire. And do when we stumbled across this clip of various Henson creations “auditioning” for the role of Yoda, we couldn’t resist the urge to pass it along. Honestly, we could totally see […]
Tags:Drunken Master·martial arts·Muppets·parenting·Star Wars·TV·Yoda
“Stolen by the Beast Who Has No Name…”
July 8th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Yesterday’s riff on Medieval weaponry got us thinking about one of of our favorite Saturday-morning shows of yore: the cartoon version of Dungeons & Dragons. To be totally honest, we were never really big on the game behind the series—guess we suffer from that whole lack-of-imagination thing, and thus needed moving images spoon-fed into our […]
Pigeon Protectionism
July 2nd, 2009 · 1 Comment
If a Massachusetts pigeon breeder gets his way, out-of-state squabs could soon be aves non grata on the state’s film and TV sets. Bill Desmarais has coaxed the Massachusetts House of Representatives into considering H816 (PDF), more colloquially known as “An act relative to pigeons in motion pictures.” The bill’s text reads in full: Be […]
Tags:law·Massachusetts·movies·pigeons·politics·Smoot-Hawley·TV
Wings of Silver, Nerves of Steel
June 29th, 2009 · 8 Comments
We’re prepping to head downtown for the 20th anniversary screening of Do the Right Thing, a momentous occasion that has us on yet another ’80s nostalgia kick. It thus bears mentioning that another great cultural artifact is celebrating an important milestone this year— turns 23! And what better way to mark the occasion than with […]
The Stuff of Kiddie Nightmares
June 9th, 2009 · 9 Comments
We’re dog tired today due to Microkhan Jr.’s recent sleep woes. He woke up screaming at an ungodly hour, obviously having suffered through a terrible nightmare. And as we rocked him back into the Sandman’s embrace, we got to thinking—in our Reagan-era days as a wee bairn, what caused us to suffer similar night terrors? […]
Tags:Jane Badler·sci-fi·TV·V
Don’t Talk to Strangers
March 3rd, 2009 · 1 Comment
Thanks to the magic of Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” option, I recently became reacquainted with The A-Team, a childhood TV favorite. To say that I was underwhelmed would be an understatement—funny how the 1980s juvenile mind was unable to discern the campiness of network action shows. A makeshift cannon that shoots out lettuce, and is integral […]
