Tom Holmberg

I don't believe in the concept that kids should know better. I know I didn't when I was that age (maybe I still don't).

I think the Chapstik kid is cute and its something a kid would do (but parents wouldn't like).

There doesn't seem to be a pay off to it.

Saw it repeated over the weekend. These don't bother me that much, though couldn't they come up with a new idea?

For viewers today, I think seeing Harvey Korman talking in a German accent unfortunately borders on humor based on his best known work. He actually does an okay job as a villain. Artie also impersonates President Grant.

That doesn't bother me as much as that damned Jardiance song (I don't care who sings it, it's annoying).

"Saturday Night Forever" by Stephen Tropiano and Steven Ginsberg ISBN: 9781493072606 Television history was made on October 11, 1975, when Chevy Chase welcomed America to the first episode of a new late-night comedy and variety show. Featuring cutting-edge humor, an absurdist sensibility, and a scrappy cast of young, talented performers, Saturday Night Live would go on to become one of the brightest stars in the pop-culture firmament, launching such comedy legends as John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Eddie Murphy, Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell, and Tina Fey. Timed to coincide with the show’s Season 50 in fall 2024, Saturday Night Forever is the ultimate fan’s bible and a loving tribute to a TV institution. Covering everything from the show’s creation by Lorne Michaels to the celebration of its golden anniversary, it gives an in-depth look at SNL’s comedic highlights and nadirs, its memorable hosts and musical guests, and its many controversies, along with the characters, sketches, catchphrases, commercial parodies, and film shorts that have made it the epicenter of American comedy for five decades. Packed with photographs and rich with encyclopedic detail, this is the one-stop resource for all things SNL _________ I wonder if the Star Wars Xmas show is included? Christmas TV Memories: Nostalgic Holiday Favorites of the Small Screen by Herbie J Palato ISBN: 9781493079704 For most of us, fond memories of the Christmas season are inseparable from the episodes, specials, and TV movies that have appeared on television, from the iconic cartoons above to less well-known fare such as A Bionic Christmas Carol, Christmas in Rockefeller Center, and the 1992 remake of Christmas in Connecticut directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Christmas TV Memories embraces it all, offering a tinsel-decked traipse down memory lane, chronicling animated classics, variety shows, made-for-TV features, and specific episodes of series like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Frasier. With celebrity commentary, historic quotes, and insight from entertainment journalists and archivists, this book will serve as the go-to retro literary companion to the small screen’s most cherished holiday programming.

A couple of interesting Star Trek books are due out or were recently published: Star Trek: Open a Channel: A Woman's Trek by Nana Visitor Nana Visitor, Star Trek’s Kira Nerys, explores how the series has portrayed and influenced women. Interviews with the stars, writers, producers, and celebrity fans reveal the struggles and triumphs of women both behind and in front of the camera throughout the sixty-year history of Star Trek, and how they have mirrored the experiences of women everywhere. __________ Lost Federations: The Unofficial Unmade History of Star Trek by A. J. Black In Lost Federations: The Unofficial Unmade History of Star Trek, author A. J. Black tells a different story. This is an alternate history of the franchise, one filled with roads not taken, from early 1960s feature-films and spin-offs, the original sequel Star Trek: Phase II in the 1970s, via epic planned movies such as Planet of the Titans and into many untold episodes, arcs and character stories from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, all the way through to the modern era. Bringing together pre-existing material over decades for the first time in one space, plus some new reflections from Star Trek writers and analysis of how it all fits into the wider cultural trends of the last sixty years, Lost Federations invites you to boldly explore a history you may not already know . . .

Now Coke is putting out Spiced Coke (apparently it tastes like raspberries, so I don't really get the spiced part). I do like Vanilla Coke (as well as, Cream Dr Pepper).

This coming Thurs., Feb 15, is the first episode of the last season. Just a reminder.

We had a relative whose cabinet looked like that.

Yes, St. John is often pronounced as SinJin or SinJun.

They're nut so good (credit to Futurama).

I wonder if it isn't the ad agency producing these who reuse the same "actors" in ads for different products and services. I notice the same people in widely different ads.

I caught an episide of MST300 on ZLiving Sat. night and they were showing "Eegah" with Richard Kiel.

Yep, I mentioned that once before. Don't really want to go to the beach in Europe.

One of the best "Maverick" episodes ran today on H&I (1/26), "The Cats of Paradise." Bret becomes a cat wrangler when he's conned into collecting cats to sell to miners in a distant, rat-infested mining town run by evil sheriff Buddy Ebsen. At one point he meets up with a Paladin parody, who wants to kill him.

R.I.P. Gary Graham, of "Alien Nation" and "Star Trek" https://deadline.com/2024/01/gary-graham-dead-1235802196/

Oddly, the "Route 66" episode playing on Jan. 24 (on ZLiving) has Ed Asner. Tod and Buz are on a Louisiana oil rig with a nazi hunter (also has Bruce Dern's first TV appearance). IMDB lists 413 Ed Asner appearances in TV or movies.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: A Cultural History MATT FOY AND CHRISTOPHER J. OLSON This book examines the cultural impact and creation of the cult-hit television series Mystery Science Theatre 3000. It looks at the most famous episodes, creators involved, and analyzes why the series has resonated with so many viewers. ISBN: 9781538173480 __________ Hanna and Barbera: Conversations Edited by Kevin Sandler & Tyler Solon Williams Hanna and Barbera: Conversations presents a lively portrait of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, the influential producers behind Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, the Smurfs, and hundreds of other cartoon characters who continue to entertain the world today. Encompassing more than fifty years of film and television history, the conversations in this volume include first-person accounts by the namesakes of the Hanna-Barbera studio as well as recollections by artists and executives who worked closely with the pair for decades. It is the first collection of its kind about Hanna and Barbera, likely the most prolific animation producers of the twentieth century, whose studio once outflanked its competitor Walt Disney in output and influence. Bill Hanna fell into animation in 1930 at the Harman-Ising studio in Los Angeles, gaining skills across the phases of production as MGM opened its animation studio. Joe Barbera, a talented and sociable artist, entered the industry around the same time at the wild and woolly Van Beuren studio in Manhattan, learning the ins and outs of animation art before crossing the country to join MGM. In television, Hanna’s timing and community-oriented work ethic along with Barbera’s knack for sales and creating funny characters enabled Hanna-Barbera to build a roster of beloved cartoon series. A wide range of pieces map Hanna and Barbera’s partnership, from their early days in Hollywood in the 1930s to Cartoon Network in the 1990s, when a new generation took the reins of their animation studio. Relatively unknown when they made over one hundred Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons at MGM in the 1940s and 1950s, Hanna and Barbera became household names upon entering the new medium of television in 1957. Discussions here chart their early primetime successes as well as later controversies surrounding violence, overseas production, and the lack of quality in their Saturday morning cartoons. With wit, candor, insight, and bravado, Hanna and Barbera: Conversations reflects on Bill and Joe’s breakthroughs and shortcomings, and their studio’s innovations and retreads. ISBN: 9781496850447

I also saw the first two episodes of the show last week and Fess Parker sang in both, which I don't recall him doing in later episodes.

I didn't take his statement about "machines" to be robots, but it would be him with machines to do the necessary work like harvesters, etc. The mooks might be saved as his servants since he had the vaccine.

I like the earlier ones because their seemed to be more actual outdoor footage while later they seemed to have the outdoors take place on sets, or the back lot.

I like Daniel Boone, it had a decent cast and the stories were interesting, even though they jumped around in time from the Seven Years War to the War of 1812, without being chronological. It's the kind of show that we'll never see again. It is one of the better theme songs, but Car 54 Where Are You? is still the best. "What a Boone, what a doer, what a dream come a truer was he."

There's a number of shows like that, the top one being Gunsmoke, which has got to be on at least 8 or nine different channels. When you consider the shows not running on any of the retro channels, you have to wonder what's the deal with this one?