Busy For Fun Blogs: Video Weekend

Showing posts with label Video Weekend. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Video Weekend. Show all posts

THE HAT SQUAD: CLARENCE CLEMONS

The Big Man has left the band - On June 18th, having suffered a massive stroke a few days earlier, Clarence Clemons passed away. After Bruce Springsteen himself, the saxonphone player was probably the musician most identified with the E Street Band.

With appearances on talk shows, variety programs, award presentations, and the news magazines '60 Minutes' and 'TV Nation', Clarence Clemons created his televersion as a member of the E Street Band. But he truly immersed himself in Toobworld with these appearances in fictional storylines as a member of the League of Themselves:

'Brothers' - "Meet Mike Trainor, Assistant Coach"

'Til Death' - "Eddie's Book"

'That's Life' - "Sex In The Suburbs"

And with those three, Clarence Clemons is eligible for induction into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame.

But the Big Man wasn't done making an impact - Clemons also contributed several other citizens to the Toobworld Registry:

'The Wire' - Roman (in two episodes)

'My Wife And Kids' - Johnny Watson

'Viper' - Leo Duquesne

'The Weird Al Show' - A Miner

'The Sentinel' - A Workman

'Nash Bridges' - Big Barry (in three episodes)

'The Flash' - Darrell Hennings

THE BIG MAN GETS FLASHED...

'Jake And The Fatman' - Blue Danny Boyd

'Diff'rent Strokes' - Mr. Kingsley

The void he left behind may prove to be immeasurable. My condolences go out not only to his family and the other members of the E Street Band, but to all of his fans as well.

Good night and May God bless.
BCnU......

AS SEEN ON TV: THE PIED PIPER

We interrupt the look at the major figures involved in "The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers" for this Sunday edition of the Video Weekend ASOTV showcase.

On this date in 1284, the Pied Piper led 130 children out of Hamelin, Germany.....

THE PIED PIPER

AS SEEN IN:

"The Pied Piper Of Hamelin"

AS PLAYED BY:
Van Johnson

From Wikipedia:
In 1284, while the town of Hamelin was suffering from a rat infestation, a man dressed in pied clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the townsmen a solution for their problem with the rats. The townsmen in turn promised to pay him for the removal of the rats. The man accepted, and played a musical pipe to lure the rats with a song into the Weser River, where all but one drowned. Despite his success, the people reneged on their promise and refused to pay the rat-catcher the full amount of money. The man left the town angrily, but vowed to return some time later, seeking revenge.

On Saint John and Paul's day while the inhabitants were in church, he played his pipe yet again, dressed in green, like a hunter, this time attracting the children of Hamelin. One hundred and thirty boys and girls followed him out of the town, where they were lured into a cave and never seen again. Depending on the version, at most three children remained behind. One of the children was lame and could not follow quickly enough, the second was deaf and followed the other children out of curiosity, and the last was blind and unable to see where they were going. These three informed the villagers of what had happened when they came out of church.

Other versions, but not the traditional ones, claim that the Piper lured the children into the river and let them drown like the rats, or led the children to a cave on Köppen Hill or Koppelberg Hill, outside of Hamelin, then killed them.

Another version relates that the Pied Piper hypnotized the children into following him to the top of Koppelberg Hill, where he took them to a mysterious land and had his wicked way, or a place called Koppenberg Mountain. This version states that the Piper returned the children after payment, or that he returned the children after the villagers paid several times the original amount of gold.

The story may reflect an historical event in which Hamelin lost its children. Theories have been proposed suggesting that the Pied Piper is a symbol of the children's death by plague or catastrophe. Other theories liken him to figures like Nicholas of Cologne, who lured away a great number of children on a disastrous Children's Crusade. A recent theory ties the departure of Hamelin's children to the Ostsiedlung, in which a number of Germans left their homes to colonize Eastern Europe.

The fact that the characters sing and speak in rhyme could mean that the town of Hamelin was under the sway of Mr. Sweet the demon at that time. (Mr. Sweet was seen in an episode of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' and was a 2005 inductee into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame.)

BCnU!

PS:
I remember seeing this TV movie when I was a kid, years after its original presentation on the old Dumont Network. And I remember being disturbed that the crippled kid got left behind.....

AS SEEN ON TV: TIMOTHY GEITHNER [THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM]

TIMOTHY GEITHNER

AS SEEN IN:
"The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers"

AS PLAYED BY:
Alex Jennings

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

Click here if you want to see Geithner as he appeared not only in the TV dimension known (for now) as the Land of Remakes, but also in Skitlandia.....

And since it's Saturday and we're kicking off our video weekend, here's the cold open from a 'Saturday Night Live' episode with the Secretary of the Treasury......

BCnU!

A LI'L DEBBIE

And we'll close out this Video Weekend with a little music by Debbie Harry. The rest of the scene has been filtered through France...

Au revoir!

TELEVIS-IAN

This is going out to my nephew Ian. Here his worlds collide, as he's a big fan of the Bruins and of Wiz Kalifa....

BCnU!

COMING SOON!

Continuing the Muppet superhero theme from yesterday....

BCnU!

ALT-COLUMBO II

Thanks to TV shows like 'Fringe', 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine', 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys', and 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', and of course, 'Sliders', we know that alternate TV dimensions contain the counterparts of characters to be found in the main Toobworld.

Which means that this clip from a movie could be that of Lt. Columbo from the "Evil Mirror Universe"......

If he ever said, "Just one more thing" in this TV dimension, I'd be afraid he was going to whip out a knife!

BCnU!

"DOCTOR WHO" - SUPER NINTENDO STYLE

Well, we've probably ruined 'Game Of Thrones' with the game console music, why not continue the trend and massacre any love you might have the theme of 'Doctor Who'?

BCnU!

AND HERE NOW, THE NEWS..... FROM SCOTLAND

This is going out to my friend Helen, in case she's feeling homesick....

A big thanks to Rob Buckley for pointing it out!

BCnU!

YOPLAIT, NO FOUL

From the Huffington Post:

Yoplait has agreed to pull a yogurt commercial that the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) believes could trigger dangerous behavior in those suffering from eating disorders.

"[For those with eating disorders], opening a refrigerator is like walking off a bridge," said Lynn Grefe, president of NEDA. "And to see this behavior in a commercial tells people with eating disorders, see, it's even on TV. It's ok and normal for my head to go through all these mental exercises."

Grefe says that NEDA "applauds" Yoplait and parent company General Mills for agreeing to pull the commercial days after the group voiced concerns.

"We had no idea," Tom Forsythe, VP of Corporate Communications for General Mills, said to the Huffington Post. "The thought had never occurred to anyone, and no one raised the point. We aren't sure that everyone saw the ad that way, but if anyone did, that was not our intent and is cause for concern. We thought it best to take it down."

BCnU!

THE "GAME OF THRONES" THEME MUSIC - 8 BITS' WORTH

If you feel like you just can't wait until tonight's season finale of 'Game Of Thrones', maybe this will curb your appetite......

I'm just afraid it will put you off the show for good!

BCnU!

THE LAST "GAME OF THRONES" PREVIEW FOR SEASON ONE!

Tonight on HBO, at 9 PM ET, the final episode of this first season of 'Game Of Thrones' will air. After the shocking finale of last week's episode, I wonder if the ratings will soar through the roof... or plummet due to the anger of those who hated what happened in Episode 9.

Here's the preview for tonight's episode:

And Entertainment Weekly teases that there's still plenty of time to get rid of yet another favorite character. We'll see.....

BCnU!

GINGER ALERT!

Being a ginger m'self who had a bout of sun poisoning once as a kid, this PSA left me concerned.......

BCnU!

HOMETOWN HEADLINES

I don't watch Jay Leno, which is no slight against him as I don't watch any of the late night talk shows on a regular basis - only if there's going to be something special that I need to see.

So I didn't know about the latest entry in his "Headlines" routine until a few days later, thanks to a mention in the Facebook page for my hometown newspaper. It was their turn to get tweaked when Leno turned the spotlight on one of their own headlines.

It'll be the one about the advice given by an energy conservation expert.....

BCnU!

COMING THIS FALL TO "DOCTOR WHO"

The first half of the season has ended for 'Doctor Who', and I just figured that there would be a break in the coming attractions videos for the show until Autumn. But the good folks at the BBC have presented us with a bit of a teaser to whet our appetites. (As if the episode title for the return wasn't enough - "Let's Kill Hitler"!)

When it comes to stirring up the fanbase, ya gotta hand it to 'em!

Ba dum dum!

Alons-y!

BIRTHDAY (SUIT) BASH

I finally got around to watching the series premiere of 'Franklin & Bash' and found it better than I expected. I've got two more episodes in the queue and if they hold up as well, I may add it to my summertime queue.

About halfway through the episode, the character of Peter Bash brought back the glory days of 'NYPD Blue'.......

And I'm sending that out to my friend Mark Thompson on this, his birthday. I'm sure he won't mind that the gift was already unwrapped.....

BCnU!

"FLYING BLIND" - IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE......

I've been watching my DVD collection of 'Flying Blind' (Shhhh!), a FOX sitcom from 1992-93 which starred Corey Parker and the delicious Tea Leoni, and it reintroduced me to a great song by David Byrne which was used as the show's theme song - "A Million Miles Away".

I went looking for those opening credits on YouTube to share them with you, but while the video has been left up, the audio track was stripped away with the following message:

"This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled."

No problem. I'll just post that video with a video for David Byrne's song immediately following and then you can play them together. It won't perfectly match up, but you'll at least get a sense of how it played out during the broadcast.

Someday I hope you get a chance to enjoy this quirky, Woody-Allenesque sitcom......

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: REMEMBERING ANDREW GOLD

Singer/songwriter Andrew Gold has passed away at the age of 59 from a heart attack. He's best known for his 1977 hit "Lonely Boy", but for Toobworld purposes, perhaps his biggest achievement was penning this classic theme song:

But the case could also be made for this theme song as well:

Here's Andrew Gold on 'The Midnight Special' performing "Lonely Boy". I always loved the repeated hook in this sad song......

Finally, as a member of the Idiot's Delight Digest, an online group celebrating deejay Vin Scelsa and free-form radio, for the last sixteen years at least, I've been introduced to a lot of music I might not otherwise have heard.

And I can thank Steve Cohen, of the lofty Cohen brothers for first turning me on (dead man) to this song, in which Andrew Gold and friends reveled in their love of the psychedelic era:

Rest in peace, Andrew Gold. Good night and may God bless.......

"ANNE FRANK: THE WHOLE STORY" (PART ONE)

If you're interested in seeing 'Anne Frank: The Whole Story', it appears that the mini-series is available in its entirety on YouTube, in at least fourteen parts.

Here's Part One, which should offer you the option to move on to the next segment directly.......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: ANNE FRANK

On this date in 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday.......

ANNE FRANK

AS SEEN IN:
'Anne Frank: The Whole Story'

AS PLAYED BY:
Hannah Taylor-Gordon

From Wikipedia:
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (12 June 1929 – early March 1945) is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.

Born in the city of Frankfurt am Main in Weimar Germany, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. By nationality, she was officially considered a German until 1941, when she lost her nationality owing to the anti-Semitic policies of Nazi Germany (the Nuremberg Laws).

For her 13th birthday on 12 June 1942, Anne Frank received a book she had shown her father in a shop window a few days earlier. Although it was an autograph book, bound with red-and-white checkered cloth and with a small lock on the front, Frank decided she would use it as a diary, and began writing in it almost immediately. While many of her early entries relate the mundane aspects of her life, she also discusses some of the changes that had taken place in the Netherlands since the German occupation. In her entry dated 20 June 1942, she lists many of the restrictions that had been placed upon the lives of the Dutch Jewish population, and also notes her sorrow at the death of her grandmother earlier in the year.

She gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her diary, which documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

BCnU!

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