The Powers That Be was a short-lived, irreverent sitcom about a dim US Senator (John Forsythe, in his last major starring role on television) and his dysfunctional family, that aired on NBC between 1992 and 1993. Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, who would go on to create
Friends, the show co-starred David Hyde Pierce (pre-
Frasier) as the Senator's
suicidal son-in-law.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Dec 25, 2011 -
21 comments
What would happen if a monarchy ruled in part of America? With a monarch divinely crowned? And then a soldier, fighting in the trenches against your hated enemy, saves the king's son and is thrust into court politics? If you flimed it all in New York City, you'd get
Kings, a short-lived (March 2009 - July 2009) television series that aired on NBC. It starred Ian McShane as King Silas and you can watch all 13 episodes of it on
Hulu or
NBC's website.
[more inside]
posted by curious nu
on Nov 2, 2011 -
71 comments
Early in 1903, the
success of the New York production of the musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum's
The Wizard of Oz got composer Victor Herbert and librettist Glen MacDonough thinking. They thought that it might be possible to duplicate that success by applying a Christmas theme to Baum's story and then sprinkling in a few Mother Goose characters. Later that year the resulting show,
Babes in Toyland, was a rousing
success. Thirty years later it was made into a
movie starring two of the greatest motion picture actors of the era, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, produced by
Hal Roach. But this post isn't about either of those productions; it's about the
worst production.
[more inside]
posted by Toekneesan
on Dec 17, 2010 -
22 comments
In the wake of increasingly prominent appearances by South Asians in American television (Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari, Danny Pudi), NBC has launched
Outsourced (
preview) (
full pilot on Hulu), a comedy about an American who moves to Mumbai to manage a call center. Featuring a mostly South Asian cast, the show is a potential high-water mark for Indians in popular American media. But is the show's portrayal of Indians progressive, or does it get bogged down in stereotypes and clichéd jokes about spicy food and funny names? Himanshu Suri of art rap trio Das Racist
weighs in.
[more inside]
posted by naju
on Sep 24, 2010 -
89 comments
I Was with Coco. "If you’ve ever seen a criminal standing before a firing squad and felt jealous of all the attention he was receiving, then you would have loved writing for Conan O’Brien."
[via] [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha
on Aug 25, 2010 -
29 comments
The Personal Photographs of Dr. Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Television Pioneer. The screen images are time exposure photographs of the picture on the kinescope in the monitoring rack in the main control room. Some were taken with stationary frames of moving picture film projected upon the iconoscope by a standard moving picture machine. Others are actually the pictures transmitted with the iconoscope camera in the studio and outdoors.
posted by tellurian
on May 3, 2010 -
9 comments
MAD Magaziner Jack Davis' multi-page montage of everything on NBC in the Fall of 1965, including the
Huntley-Brinkley Report,
Johnny Carson,
Hullaballoo,
Dr. Kildare,
Andy Williams,
My Mother The Car,
Please Don't Eat the Daisies,
I Spy,
Dean Martin,
Camp Runamuck,
The Man From UNCLE,
Flipper,
I Dream of Jeannie and
Get Smart. (missing from the reconstructed pic are the Sunday shows, including
Bonanza and
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color).
via Mark Evanier
posted by oneswellfoop
on Apr 18, 2010 -
21 comments
Fox News is the most trusted news network in the United States, according to a
new poll [.pdf] of 1,151 Americans conducted by
Public Policy Polling (a polling firm with a mostly Democratic and progressive
list of clients), the most trusted news network among Americans is FOX News, which was trusted by 49% of respondents (beating out CNN, MS-NBC, CBS, NBC, and ABC (though PBS was not included in the survey)).
The pollsters conclude:
“A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most
neutral and unbiased conveyors of news,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy
Polling. “But the media landscape has really changed and now they’re turning more
toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.”
posted by washburn
on Jan 26, 2010 -
126 comments
NBC offers
Way Back Wednesdays where you can watch full vintage episodes online of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Emergency, Battlestar Galactica, The A-Team,
Buck Rogers, and Miami Vice.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner
on Apr 3, 2008 -
24 comments
The WGA strike has entered its third month. Since New Year's,
Worldwide Pants, the
Weinstein Co., and
United Artists have reached interim deals with the WGA, with rumors of more to come.
Microsoft announced new deals with Hollywood companies. And on Friday,
ABC Studios terminated deals with more than a dozen writers. Tonight,
CBS,
NBC, and
20th Century Fox have followed suit. Names of producers, writers, and shows affected are still being revealed as letters are received.
Force majeure.
[more inside]
posted by Tehanu
on Jan 14, 2008 -
169 comments
On December 24th, 1951, NBC aired television's first annual Christmas tradition and the first opera created specifically for TV,
Amahl and the Night Visitors, composed by
Gian Carlo Menotti (1911 –
2007). Maybe the
cast recording, the
children's book or one of the
hundreds of local performances staged each year have been a staple of one or more of your holiday seasons. If so, you might be pleased to know that a kinescope of the original 1951 broadcast, long assumed lost, has in fact been
found, restored, added to the Museum of Television and Radio and (most importantly) put on YouTube. [more inside]
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas
on Dec 14, 2007 -
18 comments
Steve Carell may be hilarious in
the office, but how much would his jackass behavior
cost in real-life?
clips (youtube)
posted by tylerfulltilt
on Feb 13, 2007 -
47 comments
Strange Bedfellows: Xavier Von Erck dropped out of college, started a pedophile-hunting vigilante group, and spent months posing as a woman to trick an online enemy to fall in love with him.
Meet the new savior of NBC News.
posted by P-Soque
on Sep 7, 2006 -
68 comments
American Dreams premierd last night on NBC. "This evocative drama -- set against the memorable, upbeat sounds of the 1960s -- depicts a more innocent America as seen through the youthful Pryor family of Philadelphia as they brace for cultural turbulence ahead that still resonates in this contemporary era." Several things along those lines in the show caught my attention. One being the way the 1960's mother role is portrayed. Is she content or is she oppressed? What happend to the everyday sit-down family dinner, where some things are not appropriate to say at the dinner table? Why did it seem like such a simpler place and time? Would America today feel the same pain if we lost our president? The show is not a whole lot different from the concept of the Wonder Years but it seems fresh compared to some of the other NBC dramas.
posted by Recockulous
on Sep 30, 2002 -
53 comments
Timmy leaves his Princess. Josh Ryan Evans, the actor who played Timmy on my favorite soap opera (
Passions) died Monday evening from a heart condition.
What's creepy is that the exact same day on the show, his character died.
The producers are editing out anything to do with Timmy, although I really hope that there's a legitimate memorial on the show for the character. He's been the soul of the series, and he simply can't be replaced.
Of course, I expect Tabitha to go full on evil now...
posted by Pinwiz
on Aug 6, 2002 -
55 comments
NBC is pulling out of air hard liquor ads. Citing congressional pressure and public outcry, NBC announced today it has reversed its alcohol advertising policy. The decision comes the same day MADD
proposed new stricter rules on TV ads for
all alcohol, including beer and wine, that are based on the NBC's now-scuttled "time, place and manner restrictions" set for the hard-liquor ads. (See also this
AdAge story on MADD's proposal) A spokesperson for the Distilled Spirits Council called NBC's decision decision "unfortunate" and a "disservice to the American public."
posted by me3dia
on Mar 21, 2002 -
19 comments
