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9月23日 Joe And Kristina Sitting In A Tree...With all the furore over various Strictly Come Dancing issues, boxer Joe Calzaghe and his professional partner Kristina Rihanoff must've thought they'd slip beneath the radar. But no. The Mirror papped them looking awfully close as they left dance rehearsals in London.  On the plus side, it'll add an extra dimension to watching their routines. Lord knows it's torture enough at the moment because the Italian Dragon's even worse than John Sergeant (Kristina's oh-so-memorable partner last year). At least, he is as far as entertainment value goes. The poor girl must be wondering why she always gets the ones with two right feet (I'm left handed and I refuse to denigrate lefties).
Trying to avoid Strictly Come Dancing is like trying to avoid Katie Price; impossible. I've picked up The Mirror and The Sun and both tabloids feature Strictly gossip. The Mirror's front page (front page! Big Brother 10 would've killed for that) screams: Strictly Gagged! In an exclusive, the paper reveals that Strictly Come Dancing stars are banned from criticising the decision to replace Arlene Phillips with former Mis-Teeq singer Alesha Dixon. A leaked briefing note has been printed in full which details the answers to give to awkward questions.
In the same paper, another 'exclusive' with the headline - Stars: We'll Quit Over Dodgy Meals. What's the story? Well, according to The Mirror: "Famished Strictly Come Dancing stars have sensationally threatened to quit the show - over dodgy canteen food." The paper claims that some of the professional dancers objected to, and I quote: "chicken strips that were only lukewarm, dried-up pasta, limp salads and fruit that looked out of date."
If that merits the 'exclusive' tag, what next? Stars: We'll Quit Over Lack Of Fake Tan? Stars: We'll Quit Over Missing Sequins? Stars: We'll Quit Over Supermarket Hairspray Brands? It can only be a matter of time.
Another paper, another Strictly report. 'Bum Numbing' is The Sun's front page headline. On page three (page three! Big Brother 10 would've writhed in ecstasy if it had received that kind of coverage), the paper bemoans the length of the October 3 Strictly transmission. It will be two hours and 15 minutes long. There is also a separate commentary on page eight's The Sun Says. Just in case you're interested in the column, The Sun says that "the BBC's attempt to eclipse [X Factor] with a Strictly Come Dancing marathon on Saturday night is a staggering abuse of power".
Strictly is EVERYWHERE: radio, TV, magazines, papers. And most of the stories aren't positive. No doubt Max Clifford would insist that there's no such thing as bad publicity (unless it involves child porn offences a la Gary Glitter, of course). Sure, the BBC talent show has been mired in controversy ever since the controversial axing of Arlene Phillips. But look at the result - it's one of the biggest TV stories around. Question is, will all this coverage translate into ratings?
Today I am mostly lovin' - Sky 1. Thank you for my (rough cut) DVD of Broken, the sixth season premiere episode of House. In America, it got huge ratings - over 16 million viewers. Considering it's Hugh Laurie's opus (he's the only regular cast member featured, apart from a very brief contribution from Robert Sean Leonard as Wilson), that's got to be a massive ego boost. That's right Hugh - we tune in for you. Not Olivia Wilde's body.
Today I am mostly hatin' - Heroes' new season launched with a disappointing six million viewers. And those figures will drop as the season goes on. I think this will be the last outing for Hiro and co... MSN Editor Coops Share It
9月15日 Classic TV Intros - part IA heavy Saturday night in (drowning my Arsenal sorrows. Damn you Adebayor!) and a slow Sunday awakening to the little box in the corner. Actually, it's a pretty big box and it's not in the corner, but that's neither here nor there. So there I was zapping away when I came across 1960s sitcom I Dream Of Jeannie on digital channel Living. Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a massive fan of US soap Dallas. When it was good, it was superlative and when it was bad, Larry Hagman (JR Ewing), Linda Gray (Swellin' Ewing) and Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing) made it bearable. I Dream of Jeannie was an early starring role for Larry Hagman. He played astronaut Tony Nelson who finds a genie (Jeannie - geddit? - portrayed by the gorgeous Barbara Eden) in a bottle. In short, she was obsessively in love with him and made his life hell every time she tried to please him. Living's currently in the first season which has a completely different theme tune to the iconic one familiar to couch potatoes the world over. What better moment to list some of my favourite TV intros? I Dream Of Jeannie - Loved the first two seasons of this madcap sitcom with its ridiculously infectious theme tune. Larry Hagman was soooo handsome in the 60s!
Grange Hill (select this link to play video) - Flippin' 'eck Tucker! We are not worthy of the comic-book title sequence! All hail the iconic flying sausage-on-a-fork, the playground fights and missing the bus. What says school more than that? By the way, the theme tune is Chicken Man by Alan Hawkshaw; it was used for the first 12 years of the BBC's classic children's drama. The Sopranos (select this link to play video) - Dysfunctional families (in every sense of the word)? Gotta love it. I still miss this show. Here's a little known fact (as Cheers' Cliff Clavin often said); the opening theme is by a British band who were founded in Brixton, sarf London. My manor (well, near it anyway). Woke Up This Morning's written and performed by Alabama 3; I nearly choked on my coffee when I made that discovery. But what a great intro - I love Tony Soprano's drive to his New Jersey house and the un-touristy snapshots of the city that we get along the way (the cemetery is pretty apt). This intro includes the World Trade Center - RIP everyone (except the hijackers).
Hill Street Blues - Achingly beautiful, poignant and plaintive. Mike Post's theme has stayed with me since I first heard it way back in 1981 on ITV. Check out how perfectly it blends with the visuals; urban streets shrouded in greys and browns. If you've never seen this show, I urge you to check it out on 4oD. It's beyond brilliant. A true television landmark. No Hill Street Blues? No CSI, no ER, no Without A Trace, no 24 - you name it.
Cheers - Does everybody still know its name though? That's the question. Cheers is on digital channel FX at the moment so find out why it's comedy gold. I can't be the only person that sings and sways along to Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Gary Portnoy? :-) Here's a little know fact (heh, heh!); Cheers' intro was a little unusual for its time because it did not feature its stars... can't remember where I came across that piece of trivia. However, I swear the pictures in the opening sequence are damn near close approximations. Or is it just me?
The Professionals - I've seen every episode and I'm still tuning into the ITV4 reruns because I can't resist CI5 agents Bodie (Lewis Collins) and Doyle (Martin Shaw). I love watching them screech around in their Capris as they shoot up the villains. Isn't the car smashing the glass at the beginning just perfect? Talk about a marker for high octane entertainment! And don't get me started on Laurie Johnson's adrenaline rush of a theme tune with its fantastic wah-wah guitar. We just don't make 'em like this anymore. A pity. Starsky and Hutch - Classic cop series that roared onto the small screen way back in 1975. The cast (including David Soul as Hutch, Paul Michael Glaser as Starsky and Antonio Fargas as Huggy Bear) had brilliant chemistry and the show featured full-throttle car chases, offbeat humour and a hip vibe. It will never get old.
Difficult choice as far as the intro goes because there's a different theme tune for each season. The first season's theme was written by Lalo Schifrin. This was replaced with Tom Scott's iconic Gotcha (covered by many musicians, including the James Taylor Quartet). The third season's theme was written by Mark Snow . However, I've chosen season's four's revamp of Gotcha because of the beefed-up horn and piano vibe. The Wire - Critics rave about it (Charlie Brooker says: "It's so good, it could fart in my face and I'd still love it"). For once, the hype is totally justified. Told from the point of view of Baltimore's police and criminals, this gritty cop series will take your breath away. Like Starsky and Hutch - the music differs with each season. However, unlike the aforementioned, the theme song Way Down In The Hole remains constant. It's just that each season, it's sung by a different artist (select links to watch).
Season one - The Blind Boys of Alabama
season two - Tom Waits (writer of Down In The Hole) season three - The Neville Brothers season five - Steve Earle. For this feature, I'm going with the version by DoMaJe because season four is my favourite. Dallas - Premiering on US television way back in 1978, this tale of the fussin', fightin', feudin' Ewings and Barneses was set against the backdrop of oil, power, wealth, sex and glorious extravagance. Brilliant opening credits; the sweeping visuals, the three-way split interspersing scenes of Dallas and the fantastic cast, all set to epic, heart-thumping music. Even after all these years, it's still the daddy.
Steptoe and Son - This classic Brit sitcom expertly trod the thin line between comedy and tragedy. It made stars of Harry H Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell as they depicted the often toxic relationship between a father and son in the rag and bone trade. Every time I hear the theme tune, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Part two to follow soon....
Today I am mostly lovin' - Hugh Laurie dancing to Public Enemy's Fight The Power on House has to be seen to be believed. He deserves the Emmy for that alone - hilarious! Already one of my favourite 2009 TV moments. Today I am mostly hatin' - Adebayor. But on the TV front, the X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing scheduling clash is a real pain. MSN Editor Coops Share It
9月2日 When VHS Is Better Than DVD
So imagine my shock when I tuned into digital channel FX's re-run of episode Friends, Romans and Accountants only to find a completely different ending to the one I remember. I immediately dug out my season one DVD (purchased ages ago but never played) and, to my dismay, discovered that it also had the different ending. In order to verify that I wasn't going mad, I spent the next few hours hunting down my old VHS version of that same episode taped way back in 1983. And there was the ending I remembered. Hello Mr Levine, _____________________________________________ Thanks and I'll look into this. Ken ___________________________________________ Flippin' 'eck Tucker - Ken Levine! What a buzz! It probably sounds overly dramatic, but I break out in a cold sweat at the mere thought of not being able to enjoy Cheers as I remember it. To be fair, this also applies to the likes of Just Good Friends, Remington Steele and just about any other show I was nuts about at school.
Today I am mostly hatin' - It's hard being an Arsenal fan at times... MSN Editor Coops
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