TV Squad recalls some favorite TV shows that will never see the light of day via a DVD release. Here’s my list of short-lived shows that were cool, great, or unique (although at least one of them is indeed available on DVD):

- “Spy Game” lasted only a few episodes, but they were cool. It was 1997, and the the end of the Cold War left quite a few secret agents looking for new challenges; this series focused on two of them, and had a really cool theme tune (anyone know where to find it?).

- “The Destroyer” lasted only one episode, sadly; it was based on the pulp-like long-running series of “Destroyer” books, and was launched a few years after the cult hit (and fave of mine) “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.”

- “The Flash” was a one-season wonder that did a great job with special effects; it was done following the incredible success of the 1989 “Batman” movie, and was just as slick, colorful, and stylized. Bonus: theme music by Danny Elfman!

- “Buddy Faro” featured Dennis Farina in his pre-Law & Order (but post-Get Shorty) days as a swinging P.I. in the 1990s who pretty much never left behind the “Rat Pack” lifestyle and attitude.

So. What short-lived TV shows do you miss? Which ones would you be willing to pay for via a DVD release?

I just love Homer’s expression when he finds his chili-boots.

Read a blurb or two in the press about the new NBC show called “Heroes,” and it sure sounded interesting. My first reaction was that it sounded very similar to “The Tomorrow People,” a Brit show that I enjoyed back in the 70s (remember “jaunting?”). The premise of both is that young people around the globe suddenly realize that they have unique powers: teleportation, telepathy, etc. They are introduced (to some degree) as being the next stage in human evolution. Wait, that sounds familiar, too: kind of like a pre-cursor to “X-Men.” The difference between this new series and the other two, it seems, is that in “Heroes,” none of the characters know each other, or have any idea that there are others like them (mostly), or have visions of dressing in spandex and saving the world. Either way, it sounded promising, and after watching the premiere just now, I think I’m hooked. (more…)

The actor known as “Mako” (aka Mako Iwamatsu) has died. Penda noted his passing, and James noted that some folks will remember Mako not for his Oscar-winning performance, but rather for his turn as the Wizard in the Conan The Barbarian films. I will remember Mako primarily for his appearance on a great episode of The Green Hornet, where he portrayed the leader of a corrupt gang, and went one-on-one against Kato (Bruce Lee). RIP, Mako.

How many of you remember watching the series finale of “Cheers” way back in the 90s? Many people were somewhat disappointed, but I enjoyed it, and was glad that Sam finally came to realize that he had everything that he wanted. Now…about the mystery: how many of you distinctly remember Sam saying “one-man woman” to Diane, when he discovered that she had hired a gay man to pose as her husband? And how many of you have realized that in syndication, Sam’s dialogue has been altered so that he now says “one-man Warren Commission?”

Surely I’m not the only one who noticed this, am I? Any speculation as to the reason behind the alteration?

Preliminary Review of theng 25 minutes:
ng Skit with Al Gore: LAME. No way around it. His non-stop poking fun at his loss of the 2000 election has turned into a complete and utter joke, except that it’s not funny, and no one has told him. Come on - it’s been more than five years, Al - GET. OVER. IT.
Monologue with Julie Dreyfus: Pretty good. A bit un-nerving to notice that Julia looked an awful lot like Molly Shannon. Great to see Jason Alexander, but it’s too bad that Jerry’s bit couldn’t have been a bit more involved. And where was Michael Richards??
Fake Commercial for the TechPack: a few years behind the curve — just a rip-off of the very real Scott-E-Vest.
“The Morning Show” skit: very funny! Everything went wrong, and it just got funnier! I actually laughed out loud when they cut to the “traffic report” and the entire crew was wishing Stan a happy birthday. Yes, I actually laughed out loud during an SNL skit…can’t remember the last time that happened!

I suspect that children of the 70s are largely divided into two camps: those who fondly remember “Sesame Street,” and somehow think that Kermit and Fozzy were cute…and the other group, who knew that “The Electric Company” was the ultimate in cool. TEC was hip, before we knew what “hip” was. And like all hip things, it eventually had to end in order to remain preserved in our brains, unlike Sesame Street, which “grew” and accommodated cultural changes and got more sensitive and dealt with depressing stuff like death. So for those of you Cool Kids who grooved to The Electric Company, here is a clip from YouTube that will surely bring back some memories… (more…)

Apparently the Star Trek universe is getting ready for some sort of re-birth. As a longtime Trek fan, I’m cautiously optimistic. Here’s my ST history: loved TOS from the first time that I recall watching syndicated episodes (ca. 1980), mostly loved TNG, never got into DS9, mildly amused by Voyager, and loathed Enterprise.

And the movies: well, the even/odd theory is mostly true: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 were all better than 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. But #1 gets major cool points due to the simple fact that it was made and enabled the series to live on. #3 gets dissed an awful lot, but it gets slightly better each time I see it. And ST: First Contact was, for me, one of the best, even though I usually hate hate hate time-travel plots. The setting in a “missile complex in central Montana” makes ST:FC an absolute favorite of mine that goes beyond just enjoying a movie.

And I will plunk down my $7.50 see the next ST movie in a theatre, almost certainly - as long as it’s not something like “Star Trek: Dawson’s Creek 90210.” If there’s even a chance of ST being “reborn” and breathing new life into The Federation, I’m all for it. Cross your fingers.

You know it, and I know it: “Saturday Night Live” is dead, for all intents & purposes. The reasons range from “Belushi died” to “Carvey left” to “Norm McDonald got fired,” but I think that it occurred roughly when Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey were hired.
I’ve gamely tried about a dozen times during the last three or four years to sit through an episode and find something - anything - that caused me to laugh. Chuckle, even, or giggle. Nope. Nothing. The show has now reached the stage of actually causing pain. It’s not just the writing - that stuff falls flat, as witnessed by last weekend’s “O’Reilly Factor” spoof. It was just not funny. Taking an element of truth and insight, and then exaggerating it, well…that might get some laughs. The words issuing out of “O’Reilly’s” mouth were nothing even close to what he might say; sure, some of the mannerisms the actor employed were semi-accurate, but nothing that he said sounded remotely like what O’Reilly would say.

No, besides the writing, it’s the quality of the actors, and I use the term loosely. Tina Fey, and the shaggy-haired guy that made some stupid video that got uploaded on the internet, and Amy Poehler…these people aren’t actors. Maybe they are writers, maybe even comedians, but SNL is supposed to contain acting, despite the original “Not Ready For Prime Time” moniker. I mean, even when he was coked up, John Belushi could keep a straight face and actually ACT. And Lovitz, and Dunn, and Hartman, absolutely they could act. Hell, even Spade is capable of acting. Not the current crop, though…they muff lines, giggle during skits, and generally make a mess of everything. And I know it’s a cliche to say that SNL sucks, but boy, it really, really does now, and I don’t think that SNL will ever re-capture what made it hip and funny. The show has aimed too low, culturally and demographically, and will never recover.

BUT…there is one shining exception to the above: the “TV Funhouse” bits. Yes, the “Ace & Gary” stuff was overdone after about the second installment, but Smigel is amazing and is able to create side-splitting humor like SNL used to do. If you ever caught one of the 8 full-length episodes of “TV Funhouse” on Comedy Central a few years ago, you probably know what I mean. So hearing that April 29th will be an SNL episode devoted solely to “The Best of ‘TV Funhouse’” was a breath of fresh air. If NBC has any common sense, they’d scrap SNL and just give Smigel a blank check for that time slot.

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My favoritest “new” show lately is “Drawn Together” on Comedy Central. If you’ve seen it, you understand. If you haven’t seen it, well…brace yourself. It makes “South Park” look like an episode of Barney & Friends. The premise, such as it is: several stereotypical cartoon/comic characters are locked together in a large house, a la “Big Brother.” The situations are absurd, the “plot” exists only in theory, as the characters rarely get involved in reality-TV challenges, and there are no sacred cows: everything gets skewered. The characters represent different types of cartoons and styles, but each one has a repressed and/or bizarre trait that runs counter to their “real-life” inspiration: Captain Hero is modeled after Superman, Captain Marvel, and such; Xandir is loosely based on epic tales of quest and the standard rescuing-the-princess video games; Princess Clara is, well, a Princess; Wooldoor Sockbat is some sort of goofy Spongebob-like creature; Toots Braunstein is a way-past-her-prime incarnation of Betty Boop; Spanky Ham is based on an obnoxious internet video character; Foxxy Love is a take-off on Josie & The Pussycats mixed with some Scooby-Doo elements; and Ling-Ling is an homage to Pikachu and Japanime. I won’t go into detail yet about some of the surprises and jaw-dropping scenes, but I will tell you that episodes of “Drawn Together” can now be purchased on ITunes for $1.99 each (with volume discounts available!).

Courtesy of my Billings buddy Randy comes news that the cast of “Friends” has agreed to reunite for several hour-long shows. People, this is wrong, wrong, wrong for so very many reasons. What a horrible show; arguably the worst TV series ever made. At the risk of offending some of my readers with delicate sensibilities, there is only one proper response to this news. Actually, there’s probably more thought and creativity put into that website than was put into the entire series of “Friends,” so I should apologize to the creators of RateMyVomit.com for comparing their website to something as horrible, disgusting, and evil as “Friends.”

Did you realize that last Sunday, January 8th, was the birthday of Larry Storch? Slipped my mind, too, until this weekend. Happy Birthday, Larry Storch!