Well, Late Night With Conan O'Brien is finished - 2,725 episodes of odd, quirky humor and dedicated in-jokes unified under a charismatic, intelligent host. I found the show lagging a bit lately, but was pleased to find the last couple of weeks as funny as ever and a cheerful buildup to his stint on The Tonight Show beginning in June.
Conan's final episode is now online. It's full of references to earlier seasons and contains Conan's favorite clip - a trip to view and play 1860s-style baseball with a group of slightly eccentric period players. I have to acknowledge it's one of the show's best moments.
Bye, Conan, and thanks for being one of the strangest, funniest things to ever last on network television.
Well, as long as I'm on a The Simpsons kick this week, here's the show's new intro. It's a little depressing. Still, we get some insight into a Springfield chock-full of atrocious computer animation, unnecessary sound effects and gratuitous gags. Hopefully this will go down in history with other unasked-for retoolings: the changed ending to Return of the Jedi and the planned The Land Before Time/Ice Age crossover.
The next time you watch The Simpsons, pay attention to Maggie. I've been watching the show through sequentially, and the more I watch, the more I appreciate the way that a character I had subconsciously assigned to the periphery has become the center of some truly wonderful gags and some real character.
Maggie crashes the family car into the prison. The pose on the left is positively Shakespearean.
Maggie's greatest moments are well-documented; she's been the focus of some truly touching episodes, and the instigator of some unexpected gunplay. Frickin' Elizabeth Taylor even voiced her first word, in perhaps the show's strangest guest appearance.
But Maggie's best moments are quieter and briefer - the peripheral throwaway moments that show her demonstrating surprising intelligence with blocks or a baby xylophone (inevitably only to be rebuked or have her project destroyed), or being saved at the last moment from nearly doing something truly dangerous.
Maggie playsTchaikovsky in "A Streetcar Named Marge."
There's something truly alien about Maggie, from her bugeyed disconnect from the rest of the Simpson family to the continuous sound emitted from the pacifier that she continuously sucks at that impossible angle (a sound effect toned down a few seasons into the show to avoid distracting viewers). Maggie is at once quite savvy and adorably naive; she is easily frightened and prone to falling down, but pulls off some truly epic moments.
Maggie and her baby cohorts plan a prison-themed pacifier heist later in that same episode.
While some of the show's supporting characters are capable of some pretty immortal one-liners and enduring moments, let's not lose focus and forget the expressive eyes, single-minded wandering and constant source of character that is Maggie Simpson.
Is this really the FCC logo? And is that eagle infused with the power of Zeus, or just being electrocuted?
The fact that a Tucson, Arizona Super Bowl affiliate was briefly interrupted after their final losing touchdown by 30 seconds or so of explicit pornography is hardly newsworthy, unless you consider the following angles:
The running, jumping, screaming heart attack of a panic that must have occurred at the NBC affiliate before the issue was resolved, culminating in, I'm sure, a significant look of worry between the station's programmers.
The fact that the state had just lost the Super Bowl a few seconds before the incident and, judging by the description of the material inadvertently aired, it sounds a bit more interesting than the Jackson/Timberlake incident a few years back. (Of course, Janet Jackson being essentially the male version of her brother Michael, I'm sure "Nipplegate" provoked more disbelieving nausea than interest.)
The fact that this colossal screwup seems to be at least unintentional, and we no longer have a Bush-appointed FCC chief who's duty-bound to do as much self-righteous moral posturing as possible, meaning that the network, properly humiliated, may be able to let this slide without too much fuss.
But seriously. . . the Super Bowl? Who cares anymore, other than the everybody and their dog who watched it? Football isn't escapism, and the fact that the result eventually comes down to a greater than/less than equation that the viewer has no control over means that anybody who doesn't watch it for the ambience (and for an excuse to hang out with their buddies on a Sunday) might as well just check the scores on Monday morning. Unless. . . more graphic, unbroadcastable pornography starts making its way into the Super Bowl and only the Super Bowl.
Well, I haven't been enthralled by what I've seen so far on YouTube, but now that BoingBoing has covered it I guess I can't ignore it any longer. The Aquabats! already had a hit with quirky kid's show Yo! Gabba Gabba, and it seems they're prepared to leverage their success with the Pre-K crowd for a full-fledged Bat-themed TV show. From BoingBoing's preview of an animated portion of the show, it looks like an acceptable twist on the group's typical formula.
While I can't help but miss the Bats' older style of humor (and music that doesn't sound, frankly, like it was written on the spot for a TV show), it's interesting for them to jump straight from spoofing campy Adam West-era Batman (their older stuff) to what looks like a highly-psychedelic riff on Teen Titans, right down to western artists appropriating anime devices.
For somebody who still regards The Aquabats vs. the Floating Eye of Death! an unequivocal masterpiece, here's hoping that this new venture is successful. The band has produced some mind-blowingly awesome work for years to little commercial success, so I won't fault them for taking a different route with their recent work if it brings them the fame they've deserved for so long.
Heaven knows that the internet's a great resource for watching stuff online, and I'm not talking about YouTube. Ditch your TiVo and give the following sites a go for more convenient - though lower-resolution - DVD rips of your favorite shows.
I'm duty-driven to put Hulu first, as it's probably the only legitimate site in this batch. Hit it up for new (and some older) episodes of The Office, House, The Simpsons, Arrested Development, Battlestar Galactica and scads of others. Some of the promotional clips are mere excerpts, in which case you'll want to continue on.
SurfTheChannel is loaded with the same, but includes the entire back archive of nearly any recent show you can think of. Check out their list of TV shows or extensive list of movies to see what I mean.
Watch-Movies.net does a better job of aggregating and updating valid links around the net to most recent movies. Want to watch Iron Man before it's out on DVD? Well, you can. The quality and speed of these links varies but you'll find near-DVD quality DIVX-encoded links from time to time, making the trip well worth it. Sometimes you'll even get the Camcorder-smuggled-into-the-theater version of the film! It's an adventure!
For individual shows, there's several dedicated sites available:
The Simpsons Link1Link2 Link3 (The last link is pretty comprehensive.)
Futurama (The videos uploaded by nidhi are usually working)
NOTE: You'll want to avoid Chinese file-sharing sites Youku and Tudou, which are usually the worst of the bunch. Their Chinese subtitles, low resolution and slow loading speed make nearly anything else a better choice. Only try them if you can't find what you're looking for somewhere else.
Aimless YouTube browsing often leads to a bevy of rewards. I've been on full nostalgia overload all afternoon, thanks mainly to finding a veritable smorgasbord of classic Sesame Street clips. It seems that there's no better canary than Sesame Street for chronicling the decline of American culture and imagination. The show has truly declined, and the modern age of Sesame Street and everything else offers nothing but shameless, bland pandering and slow, meandering tripe.
So - the program is shot, and only the Classic Sesame Street DVD Collection stands as a witness. Out of respect to the former greatness of the show I post the following gems:
Ernie Fixes the Television
Don't we miss the days when Sesame Street was allowed to be surreal and bewildering? Bert really, really sounds like Fozzie Bear in this sketch. I guess Oz could only do so many voices.
Rebel L
Great jumpin' Jehoshaphat - this Billy Idol parody rocks. I only vaguely recall this one. It ends in a full arrest for domestic disturbance of all things.
Hey Food!
Cookie Monster and The "Beetles" sing this tribute to all things bingeworthy. I never did know who "Jude" was in the first place.
Cookie Monster and the Computer
Cookie Monster makes a libidinal request of an anti-libidinal technology operated by Maria, who is trying to reconcile her desire with technical rationality. The Monster, representing the part of the child eradicated in an administered world, is disciplined by having to "press the right key", and given, in place of a reward, the image or Baudrillardian simulacrum of gratification.And, Maria was soooooo hot."
Super Grover and the Apple Fight
This clip is wonderfully unfocused and pretty hilarious to boot. "Off to save the world and other good stuff!"
Cookie Monster - If Moon Were Cookie
Great song from a great sketch. Strangely sentimental.
I promise that there will be more of these soon. These are just some of my favorties. Heck, go ahead and find more yourself.
No scintillating analysis today. Instead I offer a grand clip from The Office episode "Dwight's Speech". Jim admonishes Dwight to follow the example of Benito Mussolini's oratory. Humor follows:
The second half is even better but I couldn't find it. The complete text of the Speech:
(Slam, slam, slam!) Blood alone moves the wheels of history! Have you ever asked yourselves in an hour of meditation which everyone finds during the day, how long we have been striving for greatness? (Slam!) Not only the years we've been at war, the war of work. But from the moment as a child when we realized that the world could be conquered. It has been a lifetime struggle (Slam!), a never-ending fight, I say to you (Slam!), and you will understand that it is a privilege to fight! (light applause) We are warriors!! (moderate applause) Salesmen of northeastern Pennsylvania I ask you, (Slam!) once more rise and be worthy of this historical hour!
No revolution is worth anything unless it can defend (Slam!) itself! (applause)
Some people will tell you "salesman" is a bad word, they'll conjure up images of used car dealers and door-to-door charlatans. This is our duty to change their perception. I say, salesmen, and women, of the world, unite! (applause) We must never acquiesce, for it is together, together (with the audience) that we prevail! (takes microphone into his hand) We must never cede control of the motherland for it is (with the audience again) together that we prevail!
"The Office" has more incarnations than I thought. In addition to the UK and US versions we're all familiar with there is a French and even German version of the show.
Slate magazine's article comparing the four versions of the show is more than a year old, but completely new to me. Check out the video clips on the page for strange alternate versions of sketches you may be familiar with from the English-speaking versions: the office suckup discovers a dessert in his desk, co-workers are forced to wear stickers on their forehead (if any German-speakers can explain that clip to me, I will be very grateful. . .)
According to Yahoo News, Carson Daly is about to resume production of his talk show in defiance of the writers' strike. Good for you. Wait - his show has writers?
I knew The Aquabats deserved full-blown recognition in some fashion, but I never knew that they'd actually get it. Being ahead of the curve usually counts against you in this culture.
Christian Jacobs (who we all know as the illustrious M.C. Bat Commander) has created a television program which should help to keep the next generation listening. I was worried about the frontman of my favorite group dumbing his schtick down to the level of a childrens' program, but the article quelled all of my fears. Let's hope "Yo Gabba Gabba" is successful. I think it will be.
Image taken from the Vinyl Pulse coverage of a Kidrobot toy festival which can be found at their website.
Conan's final episode and baseball anticsAn in 2009, the writers began intentionally sabotaging the show in a desperate bid for cancellationMaggie Simpson: The Overlooked, Crucial SimpsonArizona Super Bowl interrupted by porn, Tucson women further alienated from a pointless afternoon of televisionWell, As Long As It's The Aquabats! . . . I SupposeSheer Linkage Part 3: Watch Shows and Movies OnlineClassic Sesame Street OverloadBlood alone moves the wheels of history!"Office" Versions Count: 4 (With Clips!)Shows That Don't Need Writers to Resume ProductionThe Aquabats Find Their New Niche ~ Cracking My Knuckles in Public
