MetaFilter posts tagged with entertainment and TV

"Jake from Two and a Half Men means nothing. He is a non-existent character."

reenum — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:41:43 -0800

Angus Jones, better known as Jake on the show Two and a Half Men, has joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The young star has released a pair of videos urging people to stop watching the show.

"Unbelievable. Do you recognize those uniforms?"

zarq — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:29:15 -0800

Artist Dusty Abell has created a massive poster featuring "at least one, sometimes more, character, entity, starship or structure from every episode of [Star Trek: The Original] series." Via io9, who ask: How many characters can you name? Stumped? Here's a key of all 123! Some close-ups. This is a follow-up to his "Television Sci-Fi and Superheroes of the '70's" and Saturday Morning Action Adventure TV posters. JPG Downloads: * Star Trek: The Original Series * Television Sci-Fi and Superheroes of the '70's * Saturday Morning Action Adventure TV Mr. Abell is a character designer for Warner Bros., and a former artist at Marvel, D.C. and Dark Horse Comics.

The Tribe Has Spoken: Survivor is Reality TV's Finest Achievement

The Gooch — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:21:12 -0800

Is Survivor the only great reality TV show? The AV Club argues yes.

Whiz Kids

zarq — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:25:35 -0800

In the early 80’s, personal computers were a new innovation. Films like WarGames made it seem as if a kid with a keyboard could hack into anything: a school or corporate mainframe, NORAD, the US nuclear arsenal or your neighborhood bank. Hoping to capitalize on this, in 1983 CBS premiered a show which could have been considered WarGames’ intellectual successor. It featured a group of resourceful kids who solved crimes by hacking and cracking, led by Matthew Laborteaux, child star of Little House on the Prairie, and advised by a Gavilan SC-toting, mustachioed reporter played by Max Gail, formerly of the show Barney Miller. Whiz Kids lasted only a single season: 18 episodes, but all of them live on in cyberspace, on YouTube. Complete episode links contained within. Wikipedia: ”Activities included things like war dialing (one kid even mentions WarGames), editing hexadecimal machine code in a hex editor, brute force password cracking, denial-of-service attacks, emulation, facial recognition, speech recognition and speech synthesis, image enhancement, social engineering, and even computer dating. In almost every episode, the kids (sometimes at the instigation of Farley) perform what would be considered serious criminal acts within a few years of the show airing (if not during its airing); the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was first passed in 1984."
Unfortunately, the quality of the episodes isn't perfect. They were obviously transferred to digital format from a tape recording. Episode 1: "Programmed for Murder" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 2: "Fatal Error" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 3: "Deadly Access" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 4: "Candidate for Murder" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 5: "A Chip off the Old Block" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 6: "Airwave Anarchy" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 7: "Return of the Big Rocker" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 8: "The Wrong Mr. Wright" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 9: "Red Star Rising" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 10: "The Network" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 11: "Watch Out!" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 12: "Amen to Amen-Re" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 13: "Maid in the USA" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 14: "The Lollypop Gang Strikes Back" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 15: "The Sufi Project" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 16: "Father's Day" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 17: "Altaira" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Episode 18: "May I Take Your Order Please?" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 There were also two crossovers with the show Simon and Simon, one on each show. Here's a video of the full Simon and Simon episode, at Hulu.

Before we go on, someone in this room is not who they say they are....

zarq — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:28:25 -0800

The Lap of Luxury was a Big Brother-style reality tv show filmed for Spike TV in 2003. The format is familiar: 9 contestants living in a house together, all trying to win immunity, prevent themselves from being voted out and vying to win a $100,000 prize while facing down a smarmy host. Except... only one of them, a guy named Matt Kennedy Gould, was really a contestant. The rest were actors, playing stereotypical reality show roles. The series was scripted, heavily improvised and entirely created around Matt -- his very own Truman Show. Welcome to Joe Schmo. Unfortunately, parts 2 and 5 of the first Joe Schmo episode were deleted by Youtube, because they showed a wet t-shirt contest and apparently even cloth-covered nipples are verboten. Haven’t been able to find an alternate link yet. Before they were famous: * SNL / Bridesmaids’ Kristin Wiig played “Dr. Pat, Quack Marriage Counselor.” * It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s David Hornsby played “The Asshole.” * VH1's Free Radio creator Lance Krall played "The Gay Guy." * Ralph Garman, voice actor for Family Guy, and co-host of "Hollywood Babble-On" played "The Smarmy Host." * Series writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese would go on to write Zombieland. TV Tropes has an entire page on both series which includes an entry for Gone Horribly Right: "The intention of the first season was to seek out the nicest guy they could find for their experiment, once it became obvious that Matt was every bit as decent and honest as he presented himself in his audition video the morality of lying to him became a central part of the show's drama." Additional background. Contains Spoilers Joe Schmo 2 ”Anyone smell that? That's the infectious scent of love.” So how does one create a sequel to a surprise (parody) reality show? Joe Millionaire famously failed miserably to do so. But the producers of Joe Schmo tried again, this time creating an over-the-top, fake Bachelor-style reality show called Last Chance for Love. A new set of actors was picked. Two new contestants (Tim Walsh and Ingrid Weise) were chosen... and second season began. But Ingrid caught on.... Season Two: Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Wikipedia has a decent breakdown of both shows.

The spiritual successor to 24 is a much calmer affair.

Joey Bagels — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:00:28 -0800

At first glance, the new inside-the-CIA Showtime series Homeland looks like a cynical socio-political potboiler -- an attempt to exploit fears of a terrorist attack on American soil by Muslim extremists. In reality, the critically acclaimed show, about an anti-terrorism agent (Claire Danes) tracking a U.S. Marine war hero (Damian Lewis) who may now be working for what's left of Al Qaeda, is thoughtful and emotionally complex despite its airplane-thriller trappings. That's why showrunners Howard Gordon and his buddy Alex Gansa gave an interview to Mother Jones, a self-described "news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting." Reflecting on lessons they learned in the trenches of 24, they talk about Homeland's self-aware approach to paranoia as entertainment, and how "dangerous and politically incendiary" a TV show can be .

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

'Spoiler police, up yours.'

mcwetboy — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:46:35 -0800

Death to the spoiler police! Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams takes a stand against people who insist on spoiler alerts: "[O]nce a work enters the pop culture vernacular, it is not society's responsibility to provide you with earmuffs until you finally get around to experiencing it. ... But for the love of God, if you really don't want to know about a book/movie/television show, do the rest of the world a favor and stop hanging out in the online discussion groups about it." Via Roger Ebert.

Welcome Lawbreakers!

saulgoodman — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:18:13 -0800

DUI? Dealing Drugs? Better Call Saul! Have you or someone you know been affected by the tragedy of Wayfarer Flight 515? SAUL CAN HELP! Also related: Check out Saul's philanthropic causes. [Not in any sense a self-link.]

To Xfinity, and beyond.

The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:31:54 -0800

Massive media conglomerate Comcast will be changing its name to Xfinity, as part of a larger rebranding effort on the heels of their proposed absorption of NBC Universal . (So yes, this means you will be able to watch SyFy on Xfinity, and experience a double dose of dubious rebranding).

The merger part of this whole business has a number of people concerned about monopolizing via vertical integration, the future of hulu, and potential changes to the Universal theme park properties, including Democratic senator Al Franken, who worries that NBC won't be entirely truthful.

The Movie Genome Project

reenum — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:29:34 -0800

Jinni is a movie and TV recommendation service that has apparently developed an algorithm similar to Pandora's Music Genome Project. Their algorithm is cleverly titled The Movie Genome Project.

"Date Rape Chuck is so first season"

ThePinkSuperhero — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:40:56 -0800

SOAPnet.com presents a weekly "Gossip Girl Finger Puppet Parody". Sadly, only season 2 is available.

Futurama

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:56:13 -0800

Futurama is probably coming back.

No More Reality Shows!

djspicerack — Wed, 30 Jul 2003 14:19:15 -0800

Want to create your own TV Show? So do some folks who aren't from the big lit up place we call Hollywood.... All you've got to do is click up on the site, sign up, pay $25 bucks, and you're in... Oh - and you have to have an idea, too. [thanks MSNBC]

TMNT

lazaruslong — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 23:17:10 -0800

The toughest Chelonia to every grace the media. Come on. Everyone had to love them at some point, with their pizzas and funny weapons. This page has some interesting sketch art. This one includes the complete cast of the cartoon and movies, with links to their career since said roles. This site, my favorite, has the entire "Coming out of our Shells" tape for download. Remember the classic, Cowabunga?

This column

sassone — Mon, 03 Jun 2002 12:12:21 -0800

This column (NYT/reg. req) gets my vote for Stupidest Theory of the Day. Basically, he says that movies are more memorable and stay with us longer than TV shows. Huh?! He's kidding, right? (more inside).

sycophant — Fri, 15 Feb 2002 18:28:23 -0800

Actor Kevin Smith (no, not Silent Bob... Ares from Xena) has died after a large fall in China.

luser — Tue, 08 Jan 2002 13:55:13 -0800

Next gen TiVo announced. Apparently "by holiday season 2002" we can look forward to broadband, photos, CD storage/playback, streaming audio, VOD, and something called "video party games" on our TiVos. But will my Wishlist ever learn to refresh in under 15 minutes?

CBS changes their mind!!!

Pinwiz — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 11:04:02 -0800

CBS changes their mind!!!

I was one of the few people who was considering paying the $20 to watch the Big Brother feeds all summer long. I figured that I spend at least that much money on beer during a night out that three month's on entertainment for $20 seemed like a bargain.

However, CBS apparently listened to all the complaints and now instead of a "Free Trial", they are giving the internet feeds away for free.

Good CBS. Now expose Will, Justin, and Mike as the jerks they are on Tuesday's episode and you'll have a happy camper. Okay, and give me Hardy's phone number as well.

gluechunk — Wed, 06 Dec 2000 16:35:07 -0800

USA Network complies with Tylenol's request to halt production of a drug-tampering movie.

Last One Standing.

owillis — Sun, 13 Aug 2000 20:57:44 -0800

Last One Standing. Now this is reality tv. Just came on at 8PST on USA. About 10 people have to keep a hand on a car in order to win it. After 3 days awake, they started losing their wits and begin to imagine that they're being plotted against. What Big Brother should have been.

Is this a crock, or what?

ZachsMind — Wed, 14 Jun 2000 21:23:25 -0800

Is this a crock, or what? Pseudotainment claims to be online tv, but DotComGuy has better quality than this. The audio isn't as choppy as the video, but it's a sad state of affairs when the best we can do with all this technology can't even compete with local cable access programming.

mathowie — Mon, 13 Dec 1999 15:31:23 -0800

Today I was talking to a friend about how much I miss seeing Mr. Show on HBO. They haven't had a new episode in months, so I went to their official site and they're talking about making a movie soon! I couldn't find mention of it anywhere else, not even at the IMDB. I did find some interesting fan sites like this one. I also noticed they're selling bowling shirts among other goodies at the HBO store site.