Category: TV

Colbert Report finally wins an Emmy

On By Rick McIn humour, TVLeave a comment

Jon Stewart won, as usual.

But this year his protégé got one as well.

“I really look forward to the next administration, whoever it is,” Jon Stewart said as he accepted the best variety, music or comedy series award for “The Daily Show.” “I have nothing to follow that. I just really look forward to the next administration.”

Later, Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose “The Colbert Report” won a writing trophy, teamed to present an award — and exchange banter in which they used a package of prunes as a metaphor for the upcoming presidential election.

“America needs prunes. It may not be a young, sexy plum. Granted, it’s shriveled and at times hard to swallow. But this dried-up old prune has the experience we need,” Colbert said. …

Insider

Seinfeld uses a PC ??

On By Rick McIn Apple, product complaints, TVLeave a comment

Who’s going to buy that?

Jerry had a Mac in his apartment for the entire TV series.

Jerry Seinfeld was part of the old Think Different Apple advertising campaign.

Microsoft is going to start a new US$300 million advertising blitz to try to regain some of the street credibility they have been losing over all these years. The campaign is built around the idea that “Windows breaks down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting.” Sounds like corporate PR-puffing, but there’s a twist: it will star Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.

Seinfeld will get US$10 million to star in the presumably funny commercials, which is quite a good chunk of cash compared to the low fare that John Hodgman (Mr. PC) and Justin Long (Mr. Please someone slap that guy) must be getting for their long series of TV, internet and print ads. Let’s hope they are better than the Apple ones. …

Gizmodo

This is a brave gamble. Certain to grab attention. But will it backfire on Microsoft?

The campaign starts Sept. 4th.

on demand TV and movies

On By Rick McIn movies, product endorsements, TVLeave a comment

DAVID POGUE reviews the new Netflix Player, a $100 black box that already delivers 10,000 movies and recent TV episodes to you on demand. It’s pay per view. Commercial free.

This thing could not be simpler. I was watching my first movie six minutes after opening the box.

Like all Internet movie services, the Netflix Player requires a high-speed Internet connection. It found and connected to my wireless network instantly and flawlessly. (You can connect it to your home network with a cable if you prefer.)

It connects to your TV using any kind of modern video connection: HDMI cable, component cables, S-Video or even those old red-white-yellow RCA cables. The nine-button remote lets you choose a movie, skip around in it or pause.

tv.jpg

Is the Netflix Player, then, the movie box the world is waiting for? Not quite. It falls short on the age of its movies, the smallish selection of good ones and the not-quite-pristine video quality. And as with all Internet movies, you don’t get subtitles, director commentaries or any other DVD extras.

But it comes darned close. For movie lovers who already subscribe to Netflix, at least, this one-time $100 expenditure is practically a no-brainer.

NY Times – State of the Art –
20 Seconds, and a Movie Has Arrived

Of course this is only available in the USA, so far. But it’s coming soon everywhere.

The future looks bright. Right?

Yet more people than ever are paying more than ever before for “traditional” cable TV. Competitors have not gained much traction yet. New technologies are still seen as novelties, not replacements.

Cable prices have risen 77 percent since 1996, roughly double the rate of inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month.

graph-of-costs-for-tv.jpg

Cable Prices Keep Rising, and Customers Keep Paying – NY Times

In the REAL world, my parents are getting their first DVR soon.

record low numbers watching American TV

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

… On average, the networks are off the mark by 10% from last year in total viewers and off 17% in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

Consistently performing shows like ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” NBC’s “Deal or No Deal” and Fox’s “The Simpsons” garnered ratings near or at their series lows in the 18-49 demo during this May sweeps period, which began April 24 and ends May 21. …

May Sweeps Sees Record Low Ratings – TV Week

Reports like this will increase the flood of advertising dollars online. And away from the comparatively expensive traditional TV format.

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Versa

Disclosure: I watched the American Idol final to help prop up the sagging numbers. Neither David is all that great, IMHO.

UPDATE: David Cook won. Surprising.

Fleshmarket Alley – Ian Rankin

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsements, TVLeave a comment

200px-ianrankin.jpgOver the years at least a half dozen people have recommended the Scottish author Ian Rankin.

I’ve just finished listening to one of his books on MP3. Excellent.

Rankin is a “grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist, college secretary and punk musician” turned writer.

Fleshmarket Close is a 2004 novel … named after a real close off Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. It is the fifteenth of the Inspector Rebus novels. It was released in the USA under the title Fleshmarket Alley. It was the second episode in the second Rebus television series starring Ken Stott, airing in 2006.

I’d like to see that BBC production. Rebus is a compelling, complex character.

An Inspector Rebus Novel

Fleshmarket Alley: An Inspector Rebus Novel

If you like crime fiction, Ian Rankin is highly recommended.

for Star Wars fans only

On By Rick McIn movies, robots, TVLeave a comment

New limited edition hi def projector, dvd player, ipod dock, sound system, card reader and entertainment system in an authentic R2D2 that you can control. He has hook ups for computer, gaming systems, sattelite, cable. Can even plug in your ipod to play movies up to 260″ diagonally on wall or ceiling.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Might be good for a homeless guy. R2D2 could trail along behind me wherever I go.

Hitler’s lost sub – Shadow Divers

On By Rick McIn books, TVLeave a comment

A FANTASTIC story, as dramatic and compelling as any high altitude mountaineering epic.

I had no idea deep wreck diving was so thrilling.

Hitler’s Lost Sub was a NOVA TV special first aired in 2000:

In 1991, professional diver John Chatterton discovered a sunken German U-boat from World War II, lying undetected only 60 miles off the New Jersey shore, its unexploded torpedoes and the bodies of its crew still aboard. This two-hour special follows Chatterton and his dive partners in their dangerous quest to identify the missing U-boat, a pursuit that takes six years and costs three lives. The U-boat’s history involves unusual coincidences and a startling twist of fate. …

NOVA

Of course Hitler lost hundreds and hundreds of submarines, but this one has a particularly compelling story.

Highly recommended too is this book on the adventure:

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II

The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II

Actually, there is a follow-up book contesting the book I read: Shadow Divers Exposed: the Real Saga of the U-869 by Gary Gentile. I will not read that one. Sounds to me it is dull, badly written and perhaps a work motivated by jealousy.