Posts from — October 2008

Yesterday, we watched all the Sarah Palin/Tina Fey skits in succession (thanks to the wonders of DVR technology!), which made the latest skit even more hilarious! Last saturday’s episode of “SNL” sent up the VP debate. Tina Fey continued her astute Sarah Palin impression, while Jason Sudeikis took a stab at Joe Biden, and Queen Latifah was the best as the book-plugging moderator, Gwen Ifills. Thanks to Hulu, you can relive these comedy skits over and over.

Keep the political parodies coming SNL writers! They’re making Saturday Night Live funny again, if only for a few minutes for these hilarious cold opens.

If you saw the Emmys a couple of weeks ago, I hope you and your cats enjoyed it, because you were the only ones watching. However, you and the cats also bore witness to Bryan Cranston winning for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series for his role in a really cool show, “Breaking Bad.”

Indeed, the dad from “Malcolm in the Middle” beat out Don Draper at the lowest rated ever Emmys, television’s highest honor, wherein television people celebrate themselves for like seven hours. On television. My feelings are torn, since I like both “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” but I figure Jon Hamm will get ‘em next time.

Anyway, AMC has been rerunning the first season of “Breaking Bad” after the “encore” airings of “Mad Men” every Sunday, and you can even pre-order the first season DVD if it turns out you love it, so check it out. The show is about a high school chemistry teacher (Cranston), who turns to cooking meth for extra cash, after he learns he is dying of cancer. He’s got a pregnant wife and a “special needs” son, so I can’t say I blame him. Desperate times, and all that.

Meth lab hijinks and drug dealings provide a nice chaser to the rampant alcoholism and womanizing of “Mad Men,” so kudos to AMC on nailing their first two forays into original programming. I, for one, can’t wait to see more.

Sunday nights are fast becoming my busiest TV night of the week. My DVR’s red “recording” light was already winking at me for a good chunk of the evening before, thanks to my old love “Mad Men,” my new love “True Blood,” plus all the old standbys like “60 Minutes” and “American Dad.” But as of last week, “Dexter” has returned to Showtime with new episodes. Consider the ante upped.

I’ve been a fan of this show since its beginning two seasons ago. It doesn’t spare on the high concept premises and story lines, but is still written elegantly enough to avoid becoming a joke. Michael C. Hall has proven his acting mettle beyond my expectations in his portrayal of Dexter Morgan, considering how hard it is to believe that this is the same man who played David Fisher all those years not so long ago.

Tune in to Showtime Sunday nights at 9pm to check out “Dexter.” I like the show so much it’s actually inspired me to read the book on which this series is based, called “Darkly Dreaming Dexter,” by Jeff Lindsay. I know right? I’m going to read an actual book! With pages and everything!

I fear I may have blasphemed by daring to mention the “B” word– book– on the interweb, and on a blog about teevee, at that. As an act of contrition, I’ll subject myself to a new reality show, get drunk and rant about it on here, later.

Oh, dear. “Paris Hilton Is My New BFF” started this week. Sounds like a fresh batch of hate stew a-brewin’.

As I was setting the dvr to record “Sanctuary” this morning, I saw that SciFi Channel* was showing Reign of Fire beforehand.

I thought to myself that was weird, where’s the usual Stargate re-runs? Turns out it’s October already (funny how it creeps up on ya) and they’re showing horror movies and tv series all month in honor of Halloween.

The Halloween marathon ends with a special live episode of “Ghost Hunters”, a show I found dreadfully boring. The wannabe ghostbusting duo will investigate ghost sighting at Fort Delaware in Delaware City, Delaware. I probably won’t be tuning for that special, but I’m sure I’ll wind up watching a few of these horror flicks. Put on Night of the Demons 2 and I’m glued to the screen. No lie.

B-movie horror at its best.

Source: Pop Candy
*I swear this blog is not a commercial for the SciFi Channel. The television remote just always seems to land there when nothing else is on tv.

“Venture Bros” is a hilarious action comedy spoof of “Johnny Quest” created from the minds of Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. Cartoon Network just aired its third season on its adult swim programming block.

The show follows the trials and tribulations of Dr. Rusty Venture, a hack scientist still living in the shadow of his genius inventor/astronaut/scientist dad, his bodyguard Brock Sampson - a true killing machine, and his forever young twin sons - Hank and Dean. Each episode the Venture clan finds itself in meandering and sometimes nonsensical adventures as they try fend off the attack’s from Venture’s arch enemy, The Monarch.

And there’s more pop culture references tucked away in each episode than you can shake a stick at!

Fun fact: James Urbaniak, who played the internet cafe owner on “Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles” is the voice of Dr. Venture. You can peruse his thoughts on politics, character acting, and “Venture Bros” at Voucher Ankles.

Doc Hammer on myspace
Venture Bros on adultswim
Youtube video of Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend talking to Venture Bros panel at NY Comic Con

Current TV and Twitter have teamed together to present you, Hack the Debate!

If you’re not on twitter, you’re probably thinking right now wtf is Twitter? And how does that somehow relate to television, TVRevival? Basically, we’re all gonna watch the debate, right? Right. Current is gonna broadcast the debate with live comments (or “tweets” as the twitter aficionados say) scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Don’t agree with what Palin or Biden is rambling on about? Tell them, hell, tell the world by entering your two cents on the #current feed. So if you’re mildly curious to know what actual people and not broadcast tv talking heads think about the debate, by all means join in the discussion!

Al Gore thinks this is awesome btw.

And since I’m pluggin hack the debate, I guess I should join twitter for real. TV Revival on Twitter, if you’re so inclined to follow my infrequent tweets…

The gang over at TV Squad brings good news today: Fox has given “Fringe” a full season order! After last week’s episode (The Ghost Network), I can say I’m officially hooked. The show blends elements of the procedural, horror and science fiction into an entertaining show. I don’t love it, but I definitely make sure to watch each week’s episode on my DVR by Sunday.

Don’t have the luxury of TiVo and must watch something else during “Fringe’s” timeslot? No worries, Hulu’s got you covered. Find the entire third episode below for your convenience.