Some Thoughts on Television.....

So, what else do you do when it snows to beat hell and the temperatures are in single digits or sub-zero?  You watch a lot of TV, that's what......

Through the magic of the DVR, we finally finished watching the 3 and 1/2 self-congratulatory Saturday Night Live special that NBC aired this past Sunday night.  Based on the comments on Facebook while the show aired, I know that I am going to be at odds with a lot of folks, but that show could have been squeezed into ninety minutes, two hours, tops.  I have long maintained that the humor of SNL is generational.  My parents didn't "get" Chevy Chase, Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi et al, and I never quite got people like Chris Farley, Adam Sandberg and people of that ilk, but that's okay.

As for the show on Sunday, I liked the Jeopardy sketch, the Wayne's World sketch, some, not all, of the Weekend Update stuff, the tribute to those who died, including the item about Generalissimo Francisco Franco, Paul Simon, and seeing some of the original cast members.

And the jokes about not being able to read the cue cards, which EVERYBODY made, got old after the second person did it.

Last weekend we did a major Binge Watch of Seasons Four and Five of HBO's terrific "Boardwalk Empire".  What an great series that was.  The short, eight episode fifth and final season did a fantastic job of bringing the entire story full circle, and it led to an absolutely perfect conclusion.

If you like crime dramas, and haven't seen this show, then do whatever you can...buy/rent/borrow the DVD sets, go to Netflix, OnDemand, or stream in some fashion, but watch this series.

Golf Channel is now three episodes in to its current season, "Big Break, The Palm Beaches FL".  Men only contestants this time.  No one yet has stood out as a "villain" in the show, as Anthony Quesada and Mary Narcisi had in past seasons, so there is no one to really root against as yet.  The guy that I am sure that the producers want to go all the way is Chad Pfiefer, and Iraqi war vet who is an amputee with a leg prosthesis.  In truth, Chad is not as good a golfer as most of the others, so I can't see him hanging in there for too long, but he has already been to two elimination challenges and sent three other contestants packing, so who knows?

From a local perspective, one of the contestants if Robert Rohanna of Waynesburg, PA.

If you've read the agate type in the Pittsburgh sports pages over the years, you know his name.  A local professional who represents Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, he has kicked around the mini-tours, and he seems to be a likable guy. Also, he is seen in some clips on the show wearing an Andrew McCutchen tee shirt.  So, Let's Go Robert!

CBS has decided to do a reboot of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple".  As TV critic Rob Owen stated in the PG yesterday, Why?  The show premiered last night following "The Big Bang Theory", which should have given it a large audience, and it wasn't awful, but, again, why?  Why follow what was a classic TV series, which was based on a classic movie, which was based on the classic Simon play?  This one stars Matthew Perry of "Friends" as Oscar, and some guy named Thomas Lennon as Felix.  Perry is okay as Oscar, but Lennon's portrayal of Felix is so over the top that it is going to be hard to take on a regular basis, I think.

At least two of the lines in last night's episode were direct lifts from the original Simon play.  So give Perry, who had the writing credit for this episode, some props for sticking with the original.

Watched an episode of "Fantasy Island" on wine of those "classic TV only" cable stations on Wednesday night.  Hey, I told you we were getting desperate.  Anyway, this show was circa 1978, and it hit the perfect trifecta of TV Awfulness: bad acting, bad writing, bad editing.  Can't believe that was regular television viewing for us back in Seventies.  Makes you realize that television has indeed improved over the years, despite some of the dreck that still populates it.

Finally, and I know I'm a bit late on this one, but I guess that I must comment on Brian Williams.  You all know the story, so I won't restate it again, but when the news of his false heroics emerged, I knew at the time that this would not end well for him.  I feel bad, because, I liked Brian Williams at the NBC anchor desk.  The fact that he continued to repeat this story, and even embellish it over the course of ten years is what is so befuddling to me.  I am surprised, actually, that it took this long for this particular shoe to drop.

Williams is currently on a six month suspension form NBC.  I am sure that we will see him again on television, but not at a network anchor desk, and probably not on NBC.

Hubris strikes down another icon.  It is a story as old as time.

A Mixed Sunday Morning Bag

Selected Short Subjects for a Sunday morning....

To Absent Friends - David Brenner

Add me to the list of those offering condolences over the death yesterday of comedian David Brenner.

The last time I remember seeing Brenner was when he played himself on an episode of "Modern Family" a few seasons back.  Prior to that, I can't remember when I had seen him last, but he certainly was a ubiquitous presence on TV back in his prime.

I was surprised when I saw that he was 78 years old.  That shocked me, but then I remember that I would watch him on TV when I was in college and THAT was forty or so years ago, so if he was in his thirties then, well, time does have a way of passing by, doesn't it?

RIP David Brenner.

"Boardwalk Empire" Binge Watching

Marilyn and I are spending the weekend binge-watching Season Three of the great HBO series "Boardwalk Empire".  We are halfway through it as I type this.  Yes, I know that Season Four has already come and gone on HBO, so we are way behind the curve here.  It really is a terrific series - great writing, great acting, great production values.  Incredibly violent, but compelling nonetheless.

Season Three of Boardwalk takes place in 1923, which is the exact year in which the recently completed Season Four of "Downton Abbey" took place.  The juxtaposition of what was occurring at the exact same time on both sides of the Atlantic - the fading days of British aristocracy, and the battles of the Atlantic City, New York, and Chicago underworld during Prohibition in America - fascinates me.  It will never happen, but wouldn't it be great to see these two worlds collide in some great crossover show?  Personally, I'd love to see Nucky Thompson give Thomas Barrow just exactly what he deserves!  And I think that there would be a place for Mr. Bates in Nucky's Boardwalk Empire.

In an episode we watched last night, Eli Thompson approached his brother and said, "Nucky, I'd like a word, please."    Maybe the two shows are more closely related than we think.

The Volquez Situation

One of the matters that has Pirates fans knickers in a knot this Spring Training is the performance of $5 million free agent pitcher Edinson Volquez.  He had an outing in a game yesterday wherein he gave up five runs in three innings and that actually brought his spring training ERA down  to 11.00.  And this is the guy who will take A.J. Burnett's spot in the rotation?

Well, it is worrisome, to be sure.  Fans can hope that Ray Searage can work the same magic on Volquez that he did on Francisco Liriano last season, but no signs of that yet.  Like it or not, I think that the season is going to start with Volquez in the rotation, but for how long if his ineffectiveness continues?  In 2013, the Pirates wasted little time in canning Jonathan Sanchez from the rotation and the team when it became obvious that he wasn't going to work, but the team hadn't invested Five Large in Sanchez as they have with Volquez.  Will the team be willing to eat that much money?  

Someone on Pirate Chat suggested that perhaps the team will figure out a way to put Volquez on the DL and give Searage a little more time to tinker with him, much the way it happened with Liriano last year.

I sure don't have the answer, but I am sure that the Pirates Brain Trust is asking the same questions.

Some Random Thoughts on a Tuesday Morning...

• I am happy to say that I did not waste one single minute of my life by watching any of the NFL Scouting Combine.


• This is the same combine that over the years led NFL teams to make Jeff George and JaMarcus Russell overall #1 draft picks, and made teams agonize over whether Ryan Leaf might be a better pick as overall #1 than Peyton Manning.


• Unlike many, I have always been a fan of Bob Smizik, but his criticism of Frank Coonelly, even before the DUI citation, goes way beyond normal criticism and seems to border on the personal. It's one thing to stick a knife in a guy's back, but it's quite another to to twist the knife while throwing salt on the wound.


• I know that Angelina Jolie is considered by many to be the most beautiful and sexiest woman in the movies today, but she does nothing for me.


• The newest Jonathan Kellerman novel, "Victims", featuring Alex Delaware, was released today. Guess what I'm going to be doing when I sign off of here this morning?


• I watched a movie last night called "A Face in the Crowd" from 1957, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal. Good movie. All about the power of the media and it's cultural and political influence. Still very timely, and, from the viewpoint of 2012, this was one way ahead of its time. Griffith was really good in this dramatic role, but don't expect the folksy, friendly Andy of Mayberry if you watch this. Andy, playing a guy named Lonesome Rhodes, was not a very likable guy in this one. As Robert Osbourne observed on TCM, he never played another character like this again.


• Speaking of movies, it is "Godfather 40th Anniversary Week" on American Movie Classics. As one always does, I got hooked watching for about a half hour last night (saw Jack Woltz wake up with the horse, saw Luca get sent to sleep with the fishes, and heard "leave the gun, take the canollis"), but then shut it off. Since AMC edits for language and throws in lots of commercial breaks, you are better off going to your DVD collection to watch these classics.


• I am late to the party, I know, but I spent a good part of last week watching Season One of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire on DVD. Great series. I'm not yet ready to put it up with The Sopranos, but still a very good show. Can't wait for the DVD release of Season Two. At the risk of sounding like a real geek, I absolutely love the costumes and the period recreation of 1920 Atlantic City. Really good stuff.


• Did you catch any of the Accenture Match Play over the past weekend? I was happy to see American Hunter Mahan win this one. Mahan now moves into the top echelon, if he wasn't already there, of young American pro golfers, and here's one thing to really like about him - he plays fast. When it's his turn to hit, he already has the club in his hand, he walks up to the ball, and he hits it! Very refreshing.