"
The TV Wheel was a television experiment created by and starring
Joel Hodgson, of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. Cable network HBO ordered a pilot, but ultimately passed on picking up the show. The pilot episode eventually aired once on Comedy Central as a special presentation following the last new episode of MST3K to be broadcast on that network."
*
The pilot, bookended by introduction segments, is right through this door:
[more inside]
posted by item
on Aug 11, 2010 -
41 comments
March 19, 1979 - The United States House of Representatives goes live on television for the first time in history. Footage from the House floor aired on a network created by a consortium of American cable companies. The first member of Congress to speak?
Al Gore (Sorry, only seems to be available on Real Player. Embedded video, in case weird link fails). [more inside]
posted by IvoShandor
on Mar 23, 2009 -
17 comments
With Comcast, your TV watches you. Comcast is developing cable boxes with cameras to watch the room. They will know who is there to provide shows in your profile, engage parental controls, and of course, deliver targeted advertising.
Ceiling Cat Comcast is watching you....
posted by caddis
on Mar 23, 2008 -
44 comments
Fancast is a new site currently in beta, that tries to combine TV listings, IMDB type information, and aggregate full length episodes of TV shows from places like
CBS and
Hulu. It is also designed to allow you to connect you with shows and movies from iTunes, Netflix, and more. It is owned by
Comcast but anyone can use it.
via
posted by bove
on Feb 14, 2008 -
32 comments
So you finally broke down bought that fancy 60" HDTV. Now, you need a fancy HDMI cable for the finest quality picture. BestBuy (et al) promote
Monster almost exclusively. But they can cost up to $250. Meanwhile,
Monoprice (
and others) can be had for about 1/10th the price.
Gizmodo just finished their detailed
three part breakdown (including using test machines at Monster's own HQ) and comes to the conclusion that
"The only people who should buy Monster cable are people who light cigars with Benjamins."
posted by revmitcz
on Jul 27, 2007 -
29 comments
The Other Side of the Wind is the
lost last film of Orson Welles, a reputed
unseen masterpiece, that may
finally see the light of day in late 2008. The film tells the story of Jake Hannaford (played by
John Huston), an aging movie director who has to film a low budget sex-and-symbolism flick to avoid getting overtaken by the
Movie Brats of the Spielberg/Coppola generation. After providing voiceovers to two documentaries on the
Persepolis ceremonies of 1971 and an intimate portrait of
the Shah of Iran, Welles obtained
Iranian financing to finish The Other Side of the Wind. Unfortunately, after
the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the bank accounts of his Iranian financier were seized, which led to the negatives for the film getting locked in a French vault. After Orson Welles died in 1985, his lover/collaborator
Oja Kodar had to settle his estate with Orson's estranged (but never divorced) wife
Paola Mori. There the matter might have rested, if not for an unfortunate coincidence. (More inside.)
posted by jonp72
on Apr 15, 2007 -
50 comments
If you can't get World Cup on regular cable because maybe you haven't got cable, you can try watching with
this software. Schedule of American World Cup TV broadcasts
here.
posted by thirteenkiller
on Jun 11, 2006 -
19 comments
Newsfilter: The US House Committee on the Judiciary today
approved the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act (
HR 5417) in a vote of 20-12, helping to improve the provision of equal network service regardless of who receives it, without added surcharges, along with other antitrust measures. Carriers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon suggest no problem exists that requires this legislative solution, despite
pushing their lobbyists hard to get Congress to enact opposing laws, and suggesting that prioritizing network traffic is required to develop newer products, such as
high-definition video. Meanwhile, the FCC continues to encourage
mergers while prices for telecommunications products continue to rise at rates
manyfold higher than inflation, despite price gouging provisions enacted in the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.
posted by Mr. Six
on May 26, 2006 -
13 comments
The End of the Internet? "The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online."
posted by allkindsoftime
on Feb 4, 2006 -
32 comments
I noticed tonight that my
Dish TV basic-subscription service no longer offers
MSNBC and suddenly does offer
FOX News.
Strange indeed, but the bigger issue methinks is a potential plus in that
a la carte programming may be on its way soon.
Great, you say, right? Perhaps not -- because if you only pay for what you get, that means that the little guys (like
Link TV, the
RFD network and
Free Speech TV) likely face a big honkin' challenge in being visible and thus viable.
So. Given that...do we really want pay-per-channel programming? Or is this just a moot point considering that "convergence" is
creeping ever so
closer?
posted by diastematic
on Dec 16, 2005 -
53 comments
TiVo saved? After a grim 4Q04 conference call, focusing on bells and whistles for which there's little evidence of customer demand, it's now reported that TiVo is on the verge of striking a deal with Comcast to integrate TiVo software and services into Comcast's integrated tuner-DVRs. TiVo needs this deal very, very badly...
posted by MattD
on Mar 15, 2005 -
29 comments
Trio close to being cancelled. They are one of the few good cable nets. They showed
Pink Lady and Jeff fer goodness sakes. Link to how to complain
here. As the poster sez: "Isn't the point of paying for hundreds of different channels to not have them be all the same?"
Caveat: I killed my tv in March and have never been happier.
posted by alfredogarcia
on Jan 3, 2005 -
39 comments
Whatever happened to Saturday Morning Cartoons? An astonishingly intelligent article about how Cable TV, dual-family households, regulations and more eliminated what more than a few of us remember quite fondly as the magical time when suddenly TV existed for our personal entertainment purposes. Anyone else remember occasionally dragging themselves out of bed at 6AM for what was ultimately five hours of
really, really cool commercials? (Link from
Fark!)
posted by effugas
on May 9, 2003 -
71 comments
Imagine you are moving between apartments. Check out
this Verizon "How do I..." page. Over 40 questions are answered, but the 2nd most obvious question one might have is strangely absent. Then
try to order a basic cable service from Time Warner Cable. Do you have other examples of corporate sites that are less than helpful when what you want is less than what they would like to sell - or when you want to cancel?
posted by edlundart
on May 20, 2002 -
15 comments
Anonymously rat out your thieving neighbors. Cable companies are mounting a television commercial campaign advertising cabletheft.com, where you can rat out anyone you might suspect stealing cable. Tagline of the commercial: "Sooner or later, you're going to pay."
posted by dcgartn
on Mar 23, 2002 -
27 comments
eek! at+t broadband cable units to be bought by comcast. this means chicago cable service will shift to its third owner in two years (at+t broadband having purchased prime cable just last year, and having just gotten cable modems back online from the excite@home failure two weeks ago). anyone have any clues about the ramifications of this purchase?
posted by patricking
on Dec 20, 2001 -
21 comments
If you're selling your multi-million dollar cable network be sure to heed Ted Turner: "My advice to younger people in the room is be real careful who you sell your company to." With regards to being fired by Gerald Levin: "Turner recalled that Levin said 'Ted, you’re my best friend. I said, ‘I’m your best friend? Jerry, I’ve never been in your home. If I’m your best friend, who’s your second best friend?’ "
posted by CosmicSlop
on Nov 30, 2001 -
9 comments
Robert Johnson is the first black billionaire, and ranks #172 on the
list of richest Americans after he sold BET to Viacom. Does he have a social responsibilty to show more than T&A and comedy on BET, or is he being unfairly singled out?
posted by owillis
on Sep 29, 2001 -
32 comments
We're getting some new cable channels in Canada, and one of them is
PrideVision,
the world's first gay, lesbian, and bisexual television network. Even ten years ago, would anyone have thought we'd someday see
programmes like Closeted Hollywood,
Dyke TV, Queer as Folk, and
Metrosexuality on North American television? And as a category 1 service, Canadian cable companies are required to make PrideVision available as part of their digital service.
posted by tranquileye
on Aug 31, 2001 -
14 comments
I want my MTV. There was a time when the only ads MTV showed were ads for the network itself. These are some of them. (from the U.K. so they might differ from the slate of ads run in the U.S.) Brings back many fond memories of the animated letters M, T, and V.
(link courtesy of Saima)
Please proceed directly to "MTV used to show videos!" and then continue to more forced commiseration and remembrances of media conglomerate advertising as a substitute for a rich shared cultural heritage.
posted by anildash
on Apr 5, 2001 -
10 comments
Leo Laporte preannounces some major changes to
TechTV. His
announcement is mainly about the changes to his own schedule, but he notes that they're about to go MSNBC-live-style for nine hours during the day. Will that finally give us a useful reason to watch a network that up to now has been
terminally dull and useless to anyone outside of San Francisco whenever Leo himself wasn't on the air?
posted by aaron
on Mar 15, 2001 -
5 comments
Just call us Peoples' Telephone & Telegraph. [NYTimes, reg req] A federal appeals court claims that by restricting AT&T and AOLTW from expanding their cable service areas, First Amendment rights have been violated. Thus: these two companies will continue to be the only games in town.
posted by hijinx
on Mar 3, 2001 -
4 comments
I guess it's their choice. Because, "they" are forcing you to watch Queer as Folk. It's kinda funny reading stuff like "I wish I had Showtime so I could cancel it." or "I dumped the Disney Channel a few years ago, over their "Gay and Lesbian" week at their park", maybe, it's just sad. [note, free-republic link]
posted by tiaka
on Dec 13, 2000 -
20 comments
