MetaFilter posts tagged with Comedy and tv

John Oliver: "The most formative comedy of my teenage years."

Rory Marinich — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 05:16:41 -0800

There was no wink and they never sold it out for these half-hour, densely, beautifully produced pieces, which is, for all possibilities, obscuring that this doesn’t at all sound like a comedy show. It is all the production elements you would use in a full-scale news production. All the gravitas, but just inflated to a point that it has no gravitas whatsoever. And I think that is where it became this excitingly subversive thing because it just showed that BBC Radio 4 and everything it stood for was just a big bag of shit.

John Oliver on why he's a fan of On the Hour. On the Hour, of course, is the legendary BBC news radio program created by, among other people, Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It, In The Loop, Veep), Christopher Morris (Jam, Brass Eye, Four Lions, Why Bother?), Stewart Lee (41st best stand-up comic ever), and Steve Coogan (Knowing Me Knowing You With Alan Partridge, I'm Alan Partridge). Short-lived but influential, On the Hour mimicked the tone and production of other radio news shows but replaced the content with what Oliver describes as "unremitting bullshit". On the Hour was aired in two six-episode series (S1E1 S1E2 S1E3 S1E4 S1E5 S1E6; S2E1 S2E2 S2E3 S2E4 S2E5 S2E6), and begat a television series called The Day Today. That show in turn added Graham Linehan (Black Books, Father Ted, The IT Crowd) to On the Hour's already all-star lineup, upped the already-insane levels of overproduction, and ran for six short-but-glorious episodes (one two three four five (WAR!) six), as well as a special 9/11 radio report. I briefly considered bullshitting about the On the Hour staff I didn't know as much about – Steven Wells, Richard Herring, David Quantick, Rebecca Front, etc. – but this was getting overlong as-is. Apologies if I skipped over your favorite British comedy legend.

For the love of God and all that is holy

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:31:55 -0800

Michael Schiavello covers Resurrection Fighting Alliance 7 - Chavez v Mainus

So good they cancelled it.

Elizabeth the Thirteenth — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:07:46 -0800

Somewhere between Buggin' Out and Gus Fring, Metafilter favorite Giancarlo Esposito starred as Paul Gigante, a city cop transplanted by family circumstances into a dysfunctional small town police department and frustrating partnership with the imbecillic Wade Preston, in Bakersfield P.D., a short-lived comedy gem from Fox Network. Partially available for your viewing pleasure in grainy video on a YouTube playlist, with German subtitles and no laugh track. Tragically unavailable on DVD, and not to be confused with the real Bakersfield P.D.

Robert Dudley is HOT

primer_dimer — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:23:06 -0800

Horrible Histories, the historical sketch show on the BBC inspired by the books of the same name, has been featured previously on Metafilter. Not mentioned, however, were the real gems of the show, Historical Desktops [MLYT]: Cleopatra uses social networking, Henry the Eighth sets up the Church of England, King Aethelred II pays off the Vikings, Queen Elizabeth I arranges her love life, King John frets about his unpopularity.

Body, ten, face......... ten.........

Rory Marinich — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:49:37 -0800

From the comedic duo Key & Peele, mentioned twice before on MetaFilter, comes Pizza Order, the funniest sketch I've seen in years. Their new season has had some terrific moments – Dubstep, I said "Bitch", Slow Brotion, and School Bully, amongst others – but Pizza Order is something special.

♪ Where Everybody Knows Your Name! ♪

zarq — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:10:46 -0800

"Everybody Knows Their Names: The GQ Oral History of Cheers." (Single page version.) On the thirtieth anniversary of the premiere of Cheers, GQ "sat down with just about everyone who made it." Also, Christopher Lloyd, Amy Poehler and Shawn Ryan talk about what they learned from the show. And, "The Best of Cheers: Eleven Episodes to Wet Your Whistle" (short reviews/pictures, not video links)

My Name is John Daker

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:39:36 -0800

John Daker is going to sing a song that's very popular nowadays, it's Christ The Lord Is Risen Today, and he's going to do Amore too, okay? There is a subtitled and animated version also.

writer/director/actor

kliuless — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:09:37 -0800

Louis C.K. on eating pressure and providing an alternative to The Man - "I ask him to think about what he really needs; when he tells me, I give him a little more. It buys me goodwill with this person; I feel good about what I'm paying them. I like to give people a little more than they want, and I like to ask people for a little less than they're willing to give."

It's all so goddamn interesting. It really is. I love knowing why I was able to sell out in one town, and why I wasn't in another town. I love knowing what goes into everything—the economics, the technical aspect, and how to create the ideas in the show. It's great. If you can have access to all of that, why the fuck would you not want to know? I just love learning. I think learning is how you live.

Why 'Louie' Is So Excellent—And Why It's Getting Better Faster Than Other Shows (Slate) Older, Mellower, but Still Woody: "I do carry an iPhone because I want to have a phone. But more important, on the iPhone my assistant put a few hundred jazz records, and when I travel and practice the clarinet I used to take all this equipment with me. Now, I just have earphones and I can practice the clarinet effortlessly with this thing. I have never sent an email in my life. I never received an email. I have two buttons I can touch—the weather and the Huffington Post." Interview with Patrick Wang of "In the Family" [1,2,3]

"It's amazing how many voices you will encounter trying to convince you to make a bad movie," says Wang. "They say take that wonderful and unique thing you have and turn it into garbage because the people love garbage and what's safer than garbage and we all live in garbage anyway." So amidst these pressures, you must defend original work, he says: "You need someone to say, 'Enough already.' I got tired of waiting for someone, so I said, 'Enough already.' "

(NYT/Ebert)

“I suppose the first thing I should do is apologize for the billions of dead.”

The Whelk — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:47:51 -0800

A famously reclusive writer, John Swartzwelder is responsible for many of The Simpson's iconic episodes. He stopped writing for the show in '04 and began to self-publish a series of increasingly absurd Sci-Fi Detective novels.

Whenever my life gets me so down, I know I can go down

ThePinkSuperhero — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:16:11 -0800

A brief history of Nickelodeon's Roundhouse , that glorious early 90's sketch show with the guys doing backflips and the Dad in the motorized armchair.

The Strange Art of Picking a TV Title

reenum — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:19:51 -0800

How TV show titles are picked, aka why "Friends" wasn't named "Across The Hall".

Promising TV Series That Weren't Picked Up

reenum — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:47:50 -0800

The Internet often discusses shows that died before their time. Splitsider looked at "10 Promising TV Series That Weren't Picked Up". Television Without Pity also has its "Brilliant But Cancelled" blog, taken over from the original site. Previously

White girls are broke like this...

no regrets, coyote — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:13:48 -0800

I walk up to "2 Broke Girls" co-creator Michael Patrick King, offer my hand and say, "Mr. King, I'm sorry things got so ugly there, but I wanted to say that it came from a place where a lot of us in the room like the parts of your show involving Kat and Beth, and want the rest of the show to live up to that." King, stone-faced, silently turns and walks off the stage.

==* TOTALLY PLANNED ==*

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:26:52 -0800

Battlestar Galactica RPG contains spoilers for Battlestar Galactica (the good one).
Game of Thrones RPG contains spoilers for Game of Thrones (season one).
Man vs Wild RPG contains spoiled meats.
Jersey Shore RPG spoils our cultural legacy.
Previously, RPG Heroes are Jerks.

Is the 2011-2012 Sitcom Schedule the Worst in a Decade?

reenum — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:55:19 -0800

Splitsider asks "Is the 2011-2012 Sitcom Schedule the Worst in a Decade?"

Televisual journalists report forthcoming same-sex nuptuals on Conan

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:23:11 -0800

Conan O'Brien may be about to push the envelope on late-night television

The Benny Hill Show

Trurl — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:24:07 -0800

Thanks to his work in television, especially The Benny Hill Show, Benny Hill is the most universally recognised of British comedians. The Thames series was quintessential Benny with the cherubic/budgy Hill dominating sketches, slapstick routines and silent film type pantomimes of comedy and sight gags. Hill was adept at buffoons who on a slightly closer inspection turned out to be both sly and lecherous.

Louie Season 2

naju — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:26:07 -0800

One of the most radically original TV shows in recent memory is Louie. It's written, directed, edited, and produced by comedian Louis C.K., who stars as a (thinly) fictionalized version of himself. The A.V. Club recently sat down with Louis C.K. to talk through the show's second season, episode by episode. He sheds light on many aspects of the show, including the much-discussed Dane Cook episode. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. (Louis C.K. previously: 1 2 3 4)

"Dana is playing Bill Clinton literally breastfeeding puppies—that was our introduction to America."

zarq — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 06:48:56 -0800

GQ: Teats Out: An Oral History of the Rise and Fall (and Rise) of "The Dana Carvey Show." "Steve Carell. Stephen Colbert. Louis C.K. Charlie Kaufman. Robert Smigel. Some of comedy's greatest minds got one of their biggest breaks on the short-lived but much-loved "The Dana Carvey Show." Fifteen years later, in this exclusive oral history, the players recount the brief but fertile life of a truly unusual show", all eight episodes of which are available on Hulu. (Previously) Here's a Single page version of the main article The show is also available on YouTube, via Crackle's channel. Episodes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Orange you glad you got your Nickelodeon?

Rhaomi — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:33:49 -0800

Two and a half years ago, we explored the early history of Cartoon Network... but it wasn't the only player in the youth television game. As a matter of fact, Fred Seibert -- the man responsible for the most inventive projects discussed in that post -- first stretched his creative legs at the network's truly venerable forerunner: Nickelodeon. Founded as Pinwheel, a six-hour block on Warner Cable's innovative QUBE system, this humble channel struggled for years before Seibert's innovative branding work transformed it into a national icon and capstone of a media empire. Much has changed since then, from the mascots and game shows to the versatile orange "splat." But starting tonight in response to popular demand, the network is looking back with a summer programming block dedicated to the greatest hits of the 1990s, including Hey Arnold!, Rocko's Modern Life, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Double Dare, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and All That. To celebrate, look inside for the complete story of the early days of the network that incensed the religious right, brought doo-wop to television, and slimed a million fans -- the golden age of Nickelodeon. (warning: monster post inside) PART 1: The Early Years Nick started out as a young children's program called Pinwheel that mixed puppetry and live action with animated shorts from overseas. Only a few bootlegs survive from this era, making video hard to track down. As the nascent channel struggled to find an audience, it started rerunning episodes of the Canadian comedy show You Can't Do That On Television!, which proved to be a big hit and laid the groundwork for future variety shows like it once the network found its legs. The show also introduced the infamous green slime that would characterize the network's later game show programs. Semi-active fansite YCDTOTV.com provides official recipes, and is positively overflowing with other content about this era. PART 2: "From Worst to First" Fred Seibert arrived at Nickelodeon fresh from success at MTV, where he and colleague Alan Goodman had developed the iconic "Man on the Moon" sequence that launched the channel in 1981. The Fred/Alan team found Nickelodeon floundering, hemorrhaging millions of dollars and dead last in the ratings. Their solution: a complete re-branding, starting with the logo. Out went the clunky silver balloon, in came The Splat. Inspired by MTV's shifting psychedelic design, The Splat was an all-purpose wonder, an amorphous blob of bright orange gunk that could be anything and everything. Using fun style guides, producers applied the Nick name to bones, rocket ships, dinosaurs, and dozens of other forms across hundreds of products over the next few decades. The logo was so versatile, in fact, that it went through only one major revision (blog post; guide) before Viacom, in the way of all corporate giants, dispensed with The Splat in 2009 for a new unified brand -- one very similar, ironically enough, to the logo that saddled the network in its infancy. To introduce Nick's new brand, Seibert and Goodman contracted with dozens of artists to create a series of striking and innovative "bumpers" all showcasing the bright orange Splat. Perhaps the most fortuitous hire was a capella band The Jive Five. As Seibert explains in his article "The Doo-Wopping of Television":

Alan's former colleague, writer and producer Marty Pekar, had started Ambient Sound to capture contemporary recordings of classic doo-wop groups from the 50s and 60s. He introduced them to the leader of The Jive 5, Eugene Pitt, as "not only a great singer, but a smart man." They found Eugene to be, as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO Terry Stewart said, "the most underrated soul singer in America," and a wonderful collaborator. When the opportunity to work with Nickelodeon presented itself, Fred, Alan, and producer Tom Pomposello immediately knew the Jive 5 would be the perfect underpinning for defining the vocabulary of the network. Convincing Nickelodeon was another story. [...] Fred/Alan tried a lot of arguments to bring them around to a doo-wop sound, but they fell on deaf ears. "Doo-wop's 30 years old, no kid has ever heard of it." We won the day on two grounds. Fred played on the executives' liberal backgrounds. "We love all forms of African-American music, and using doo-wop will be a great way to educate American kids without anyone being the wiser." Alan's worked even better. He opened his mouth and, quoting The Marcels' arrangement of chestnut "Blue Moon," sang: "Bom-ma-bom, a-bom-bom-a-bom, ba-ba-bom-bom-a-bomp, b-dang-a-dang-dang, b-ding-a-dong-ding." "What kid isn’t going to relate to that right away?" Alan asked. Case closed.

The Jive Five proceeded to record a number of joyful and infectiously catchy doo-wop melodies for the artists to animate in a wide variety of styles, spots that went on to form the core of the channel's new identity (and the first of which became the its enduring theme song):

N-Nick Nick Nick N-Nick Nick Nick... Nickelodeon! (Main Theme) - Hon De Laud Hup Hivvel Up Nick (Calling Cades MasterMix) - Orange you glad you got your Nickelodeon? (Fruit variant) - Bulldog Crew (Jungle) - Tweedley Dum (Space Beans) - Shoo Be Doo (Worms) - It's Time, It's Time (Haircut) - Say Hey Say Hi Say Ho (Skating) - Better Off By Far (Space) - Waiting for You (Fish) - Dino Bop - Doo-Wop-a-Saurus - Your TV Network (Jive Five) - Top of the Hour - Easy Groove - Alligator and Frog - Dragon and Frog - Full Montage

The campaign was a tremendous, CLIO award-winning success -- within six months Nickelodeon had rocketed to the number one slot on the ratings chart. And the doo-wop was just the beginning -- that first batch inspired a wider range of spots in later years, from the cute to the bizarre:

Pinchface - Bone - Picnic Ants - Big Beast Quintet - Nicktoons Blob - Scissors Man - Opera - Reggae - Toothbrush Morph - Monkey Balloon - Dancing Dogs - Monster Disco - Banner - Around the World - Waiter - Laundry - Rock Dance - Teacup - What You Want claymation - Doug - Spelling - Barnyard - Comet - Flying Chair - Origami - Asian ID - Sea Monster - Box Face - Stage - Cave Paintings - Octopus - Tractor - Head on Chair - Windshield - Lockers - Rugrats - Gymnastics - Nick Takes Over Your School - Compilation (with lots more) - Shorts: Inside-Out Boy and Angela Anaconda

A Maine summer camp was even invited to submit student-created bumpers, which turned into a fun campaign of its own. PART 3: Nickelodeon Studios Years of sustained success led to the 1990 foundation of Nickelodeon Studios, a combination film studio, animation mecca, and theme park at Universal Studios in Orlando. The studio, with its colorful facade and infamous Slime Geyser, would become the nerve center of the company and a backdrop for many programs throughout the next decade, especially game shows like Double Dare, the notoriously difficult Legends of the Hidden Temple obstacle course (which you can attempt yourself!), and Global GUTS with its imposing Aggro Crag. The network also developed spin-offs and sister channels, such as Nick Jr. (full of colorful fare like Face and Gullah Gullah Island for the toddler set) and Nick at Nite, which featured reruns of popular sitcoms from decades past (which, if you think about it, is basically what this '90s programming block is doing right now -- oh noes!). Sadly, the studios closed its doors in 2005 in the face of flagging attendance, storm damage, and staff relocations to other offices. The building still stands, but all has been stripped away, including the Geyser and the studio time capsule (reburied at a company resort talked about previously). Gone, but not forgotten, though -- enjoy this thorough behind-the-scenes guided tour of the facility from before the closure by a former employee. PART 4: Live Action The Nick Studio was home to many live action programs, from sitcoms to horror to variety shows (and Stick Stickly!): Two early sitcoms, Hey Dude and Clarissa Explains it All, have been given full retrospectives by the AV Club, while fan favorite The Adventures of Pete & Pete is getting an episode-by-episode review. Speaking of which, don't miss the full version of "Hey Sandy," the great theme song by Polaris that carried some surprisingly dark undertones, or this original short uploaded by Fred Seibert. As for the cast, where are they now? Horror series Are You Afraid of the Dark? went through several incarnations, many episodes of which can be found online. Brave the list of scariest episodes (or TVTropes' High Octane Nightmare Fuel page for the show) ...if you dare. And of course there were the two big variety shows, both the work of Dan Schneider ("the Norman Lear of children’s television"). Each were modeled on the earlier YCDTOT -- the SNL-lite All That and spin-off Kenan & Kel (both of which helped propel star Kenan Thompson to actual SNL stardom). The nature of the shows makes video more scattered, but there's plenty to take in; this 100+ video playlist is a good start, as is the TVTropes page. (And lest we forget: Camp Anawanna, Alex Mack, Cousin Skee-- well, you can probably forget that one.) For the cynics out there: The Nostalgia Critic's skeptical 18-minute mocking of the above (except for Pete & Pete, which he loves unconditionally). PART 5: Nicktoons Of course, the most well-known Nick properties were their many original animated series, or Nicktoons. A ToonZone member explains their genesis:

Sometime in 1989, at the Montclair, New Jersey house of Nick president Geraldine Laybourne, Laybourne, her husband Kit, Herb Scannell, Fred Seibert, and others had a meeting where they watched TV shows currently running at the time and compared them to classic shorts such as the Looney Tunes. They came to the conclusion that then-current animation from studios such as DIC and Hanna-Barbera was formulaic and had no unique style. Geraldine Laybourne believed that the best characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Kermit the Frog, were those characters who were linked to their creator. Laybourne and the team decided that the creator should be the one who was the center of the production, just as it was in the old days. Also, having a library of animated shows that they owned would allow them to both prevent having to license other animation and make money for the network- and also eventually make back the high cost of producing original animation, since animation is costly to produce, but has a long shelf life. It was an expensive and laborious project- around $12 million in total ($1 to $2 million per pilot) to commission eight pilots, of which they hoped four would be able to air as an animated block with a target date of August 1991.

Only three of the eight made made it through to production: Doug, Rugrats, and the wonderfully edgy Ren & Stimpy. The success of these inspired others throughout the next decade, including:

Rocko's Modern Life, whose first season is on review at AV Club Hey Arnold!, whose main voice actress (for Helga) recently did an informative Q&A over at Reddit Kablam!, the comics-inspired variety animation show with one catchy theme song ("Two Tone Army" by The Toasters) The ongoing Spongebob Squarepants juggernaut, whose first few seasons could be pretty twisted Invader Zim (lots of episodes here), whose twistedness was a little more obvious And of course plenty of Mefites are familiar with the artistry and good storytelling of Avatar (no, not the 3D one)

One notable project was Seibert's Oh Yeah! Cartoons, an innovative series of one-off creator-driven shorts that would inspire later work on Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons series (which in turn led to programs like Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls, discussed here). There's a full list of shorts to peruse on Wikipedia -- many are on YouTube, but far to many to post here. Seibert himself has put a lot of media from the show on the web, like multiple 100+ page books of art from his Frederator Studios, which helmed the project and now makes series like Adventure Time. Don't miss the ongoing 16-part history of the studio (full table of contents are only in that last post). Also interesting, if unrelated, is Seibert's collection of media from his time at Hanna-Barbera in the early '90s. If you want more (lots more), check out Jerry Beck's Not Just Toons: Nicktoons! or Heather Hendershot's more scholarly Nickelodeon Nation. (The Nostalgia Critic is slightly more tolerant of the 'toons) PART 6: Nickelodeon Magazine For years, Nick promoted subscriptions to Nickelodeon Magazine, its flagship print product with a peak circulation of more than seven million. Interestingly, while the magazine was largely concerned with pranks and jokes and celebrity interviews, it was also a haven for the underground comix scene, featuring work from cartooning luminaries like Kim Deitch and Craig Thompson, whose works were popular enough to justify periodic all-comic specials and support award programs and convention events. As cartoonist Rod McKie described his first read through an issue:

So, having heard good things about Nickelodeon Magazine (US), I decided to get a hold of the thing and go over it with a fine tooth-comb, and try to think my way into the thing. The thing was, I had no idea what to expect, it was a kids magazine after all. Well, I was astonished when I saw it, really astonished. I'm not kidding, I was really bowled over by the magazine, I had never seen a publication more visually literate, more cartoon and illustration friendly, it was a cartoonist's delight. [...] I found myself responding to it with the same levels of wonder and delight as a cartoonist, as a parent, and as a teacher. I had never seen anything like this, and I had never seen such a range of mainstream and indie cartoonists all gathered together in one publication.

Though the magazine unfortunately folded in 2009, information and art from its many features can still be found on the web: Fiona of the Felines by Terry LaBan - Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters by Jef Czekaj - Impy & Wormer by James Kochalka - Juanita and Clem by Craig Thompson - Mervin the Magnificent by Richard Sala - Patty-Cake by Scott Roberts - Sam Hill & Ray-9 by Mark Martin - Scene But Not Heard by Sam Henderson - Southern Fried Fugitives by Simon and Kim Deitch - Teeny Weeny, the Tiniest Hot Dog in the World by Mark Martin - The Uncredibly Confabulated Tales of Lucinda Ziggles by Andy Ristaino - Underpants-On-His-Head Man by Michael Kupperman - Yam by Corey Barba Lots more material in the unofficial Nickmag-Comics LiveJournal site, or browse an old issue at Archive.org. PART 7: Nick News In 1992, the channel hired respected journalist Linda Ellerbee to helm Nick News, a new educational program meant to air periodically in classrooms and in primetime. The show gained renown (and eventually won a Peabody and an Edward R. Murrow Award) for tackling difficult and complex issues like AIDS and global warming in a frank way, taking its young audience seriously and relying heavily on interviews with kids and teens to explore their problems and concerns. Politically aware, the program's regular "Kids Pick the President" mock election correctly called five of the last six winners (save Kerry in 2004). Perhaps the most notable episode of the show was the controversial 2002 special report "My Family is Different" (discussed previously), which dealt with same-sex parentage and attendant issues such as sexual harassment and hate crimes. In a time when homosexuality enjoyed far weaker public support in America, Ellerbee's earnest and nonjudgmental take on the subject provoked bitter outrage from conservative groups, who pledged to boycott Nickelodeon in retaliation. The episode, the show's highest-rated, went on to win a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Television Journalism. The show's still going strong, most recently covering the long-term consequences of the Haiti earthquake. PART 8: Nick Movies In its heyday, the company produced original live-action movies, such as Harriet the Spy (1996) and Good Burger (1997), in addition to adaptations of its animated stable. It later branched out into producing big screen versions of other works, from A Series of Unfortunate Events and Nacho Libre to Rango and the terrible M. Night Shyamalan version of beloved Nicktoon Avatar (The Last Airbender). PART 9: SPECIAL MUSICAL BONUS!! An official "Best of Nicktoons" CD featuring a random assortment of earwormy tunes from across the network; available for download here or with selected tracks on YouTube: Nick Nick Nick (Main Theme) - 3D Laughing Boy Open - Rugrats Theme - Nick Video Open - Kablam! Theme - Thunder Girl - Nick-o-Las Tell Underture - Ren & Stimpy Theme - Happy Happy Joy Joy - Log Commercial - Calling Cades - Aaahh!! Real Monsters Theme - Artman Open - Angry Beavers Theme - I Think I Like You - Hey Arnold! Theme - Haunted Train Blues - Darling You Left My Heart - Look Up! - Simple Things - Rocko's Modern Life Theme - Orange You Glad? - CatDog Theme And what musical bonus is complete without a little amateur a capella? PART 10: It all comes back For the foreseeable future, rotating blocks of the old shows are now set to air weeknights at midnight EST on sister network TeenNick, starting with All That, Kenan & Kel, Clarissa Explains It All, and Doug. If you're not a fan of those, changes will be made to the schedule in response to feedback online through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels. Also, regular marathons of the old animated shows run overnight on fellow sister network Nicktoons at the same time, offering some variety for anybody who wants it.

"Don't steal from this show! That's like taking pants from a hobo!"

Rhaomi — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:42:23 -0800

After Kad & Olivier sign off and the Satisfaction production logo fades, viewing audiences are oftentimes treated to a cold open of an empty talk show set... one that quickly becomes the impromptu dance floor for a shameless Frenchman making an absolute giddy fool of himself while lip-syncing pop songs alongside a menagerie of... wait, *what*?! That's right. The Late Late Show's Craig Ferguson appears to have a not-so-secret French admirer -- one who's not above ripping off both his opening titles and his signature dance sequences (including the iconic animal puppets): "ABC" by The Jackson 5, "Flashdance" by Irene Cara, "On the Floor" by Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull, "Waka Waka" by Shakira, "Men in Black" by Will Smith, "Let's All Chant" by the Michael Zager Band, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham!, "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls, and "Vive Le Vent (Jingle Bells)" by Tino Rossi. Luckily, Ferguson's sense of showmanship is more prodigious than litigious -- he responded to Arthur's "homáge" by booking a pair of translatlantic crossover shows, with Arthur visiting LA that week and Ferguson flying out to Paris just last month. Video of both shows (plus lots more) inside! Arthur visits The Late Late Show:

Monologue - Tweetymail - Michael Sheen interview - Casablanca outro - post-mortem Later: Craig chats with Conan about the crossover

Unfortunately, there's no comparable coverage of Craig's visit to Ce Soir Avec Arthur... but there is one whopper of a trailer. See also Craig's take on the trip. More dancing intros! - "I Melt with You" (featuring the Mythbusters) by Modern English (previously) - The infamous Doctor Who cold open, initially blocked due to copyright (previously). Also: Craig shows off a Dalek

Others: "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett "Look Out, There's a Monster Coming" by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band "Chant of the Wanderer" by The Sons of the Pioneers "Dracula's Lament" by (and featuring!) Jason Segel "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" by Trace Adkins

Lots more previously (broken links fixed in this comment, except for "I'm Yours" here) Miscellaneous bits The saga of Geoff Peterson, the robot skeleton sidekick built by Mythbuster's Grant Imahara:

Construction montage - introduced with (what else?) a musical open - interviewing Grant - bonding time - a trip to Vegas - a vocal upgrade

The show's increasingly bizarre Twitter/email jingles:

Techno - Hair Metal - Eurotrash - 80s Pop - Western - Retro Sci-fi - Bollywood - Keytar

*ding dong* Who's that at the door? The story of Secretariat! (An idea also borrowed by Arthur) Wavey and Nadine reunite - Raffling Chris the Leatherboy - Corky the Recession Puppet - HD Wavey vs. Crap-o-vision Wavey - "Sid the Rabbit" rants about the censors - Jimmy Fallon's Friendship Sweater A fun interview round-up from kmz - The Late Late Show on TVTropes - Every episode opening segment in (rough) chronological order

Now the story of a wealthy man who lost everything. And the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.

Rory Marinich — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:59:30 -0800

The much-beloved Arrested Development was characterized by its complex, multilayered narrative jokes; here the A. V. Club analyzed a 50-second-long clip and tried to map out all its references (including one very subtle three-part joke about eggs). Luckily for you, there’s a very exhaustive web site, The Balboa Observer-Picayune, which documents the show’s obscurest jokes (H. Maddas, Blackstool, GOB’s ice obsession), its cleverest callbacks (Hello’s revenge, ”Mom says”, pilot/finale call backs), its visual gags (ye ar bo oks, ne ws pa pers, cartoons, Amazon), and its longest-running gags (I’ve made a huge mistake”, “Her?”, Cloud Mir, ”Hey, brother!”, and the chicken dance). Complete index of references at the Bluthcyclopedia. Complete transcripts of every episode. Bonus songs! All You Need Is Smiles. Yellow Boat. Big Yellow Joint. Hot Cops. It Ain’t Easy Being White. Discipline Daddy. Motherboy. Balls in the Air. You Here With Me. I Get Up. Finally, Fonzie jumps the shark again. The A. V. Club is also reviewing the entire first season this summer; so far they've covered the first six episodes. If you'd rather listen to the show's excellent ukulele-jazz soundtrack rather than to its song-songs, here's a nice little samp ler. Enjoy.

"It was kind of shitty at first, but I thought it got a lot better. You know what show I like? Cheers. That was a good show."

jbickers — Wed, 18 May 2011 08:45:53 -0800

"You didn’t put a bullet through Bin Laden but I’m proud of you. You’re a bust-ass kid." Justin Halpern's dad reacts to the cancellation of $#*! My Dad Says.

One-Man Show

reenum — Mon, 16 May 2011 14:21:29 -0800

Louis C.K. has what most artists dream of: total creative control over his show.

Stonybridge!

Artw — Fri, 06 May 2011 15:08:48 -0800

Why is BBC Scotland getting all the new comedy shows?