Heroes has been struggling of late (check the news that Bryan Fuller, the man credited for its improvements last series, has now left the show), so it’s clear that the producers of the show are going a bit Twin Peaks and going for the surreal angle. So here’s a sneaky peaky which has obviously been leaked because it’s clearly true, of Sylar (Zachary Quinto) falling flat on his face with a dog, a giant pork chop and a butcher covered in blood. New characters in the next series? What an exclusive this is!
A lot of people were a bit worried when Bill Oddie announced he was leaving Springwatch. Chris Packham, formerly of The Really Wild Show, came to fill the beard shaped void and, for most people, he’s doing a rather splendid job indeed. You see, Springwatch has always had a good sense of humour and a penchant for the ridiculous. So when everyone rumbled that Packham had been sneaking song titles from The Smiths into his script, the show – justly – got loads of publicity. He’s brought more rock ‘n’ roll that mere Smiths songs, sporting t-shirt that display his love for Jesus and Mary Chain, and a rather sweet ‘Rockaway Beach’ tee, which is a track by The Ramones about a sewage pipe. Anyway, if you’d like to see a compilation of all of Packham’s Smiths references, click over. It is fun… and that’s what TV is supposed to be about.
Live TV is notoriously full of pitfalls. I mean, you’re out on a limb, staring down the barrel of a gun whilst trying to keep anyone who has tuned in entertained enough to avoid skipping the channel. A producer yells in your ear, you have to sit ‘just so’, you have to think of a million things at once and, ironically, what comes out of your mouth is probably last on the list. Well, poor old Adam Boulton, Sky News anchor, got his brain and tongue in a twist when reading the autocue for a link to the day’s news stories. Click over to see what I mean…
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Thus far, Big Brother 10 has been erring on the side of pleasant. Everyone is still being kinda nice to each other as BB has refused to stick the thumb-screws on and start hiding people’s smokes and ration their food. Of course, we all know what a pressure cooker the Big Brother house is… especially if the only pressure you’ve faced prior is akin to the hairdressers being shut or the offie has run out of WKDs. There’s been a few fist-fights around the BB world, which will either shock you, or alternatively, please you that some reality chump is getting teeth knocked out. If you’d like to see the best BB punch-ups, click over.
TV can be brilliant. It can move you to tears with beautifully shot documentaries… it can stir your brain with incredible and grisly war footage… it can break your heart with fine drama… it can also baffle your turds into a plait. One such event, which I somehow missed first time around, was sent to me by a mate (he’s called Ed Kluz and his dad is a newsreader… true story) who said that a clip had got him crossing his legs with laughter and slight painful embarrassment. It’s Cilla Black, on Surprise Surprise, at some boxing club with a bunch of errors, dressed up in full boxing gear, punching people and singing ‘The Eye of the Tiger’ from the Rocky films. Don’t believe me? Click over the jump and watch the video.
There’s a new show coming to Virgin 1, which is about to rebrand itself as a proper freeview channel as opposed to the thing we get a couple of crappy hours of, which is what we get at the minute. Anyway, as part of the new relaunch… or reimagining… or whatever you want to call it, it’s getting a new comedy show called The Life and Times of Tim, which has been imported from ace US network HBO. Starting in two weeks, the show will delve into the weird and awkward world of Tim, which lies somewhere between Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office. It’s an animated effort and there’s videos over the jump for you to suck it and see. We’ll be interviewing the creator of the show, Steve Dildarian, next week.
Sounds a bit lame doesn’t it? A video of TV production company idents. Wait a minute, come back here you great lump. You see, you might not realise it, but some idents can make a whole host of brilliant memories come flooding back. In fact. some of the animated logos were even better than the shows they produced. I mean, Stephen J. Cannell Productions may not mean a damn thing to you, but when I say that, when you’d finished watching The A-Team, and a guy was sat at a typewriter and flung a piece of paper which turned into a production logo, you cogs may well start to rattle. Click over the jump to see some famous, and some not-so-famous-but-incredibly-lovely spots that will fill you with fuzzy glee. This could well be the finest video you see all year… and so simple.
With The Apprentice trundling on at full creak, I thought I’d direct your attentions to a fun little video that I stumbled across (ie stole from a Twitter link from MissCay) which made me smile. In essence, Alan Sugar’s various ramblings (which are often quite surreal) have been hacked up and pieced back together in a way that is often very odd and occasionally, very very sarcastic. Obviously, I like it a lot! Click over the jump to watch it.
After last week’s Bauhaus-fest it seems the writers and producers may be getting a little fixated on one artist each week in this second series, as last night’s episode featured three tracks either exclusively Bowie or at least featuring him singing. Although the track list looks as long as in previous weeks it felt like there were long interludes in the programme with no music at all, which is at the least a lost opportunity to showcase some great music. It’s rapidly becoming one of the only reasons I’m still watching the show.
The Simpsons. Not as funny as it used to be… waaaaah waaaaah. That’s all you ever hear from you lot these days. Even when The Simpsons is at its worst, it’s still one of the funniest things on the box. Of course, the show has always been able to pull something out of the bag in lean times… and this time it’s Maggie. Yessir, Maggie Simpson has finally spoken her first coherent sentence! Weirder still, is that she’s voiced by Jodie Foster! Who would have guessed that? Anyway, if you’d like to see Maggie’s moment in the spotlight, click over the jump and see her turn…
It was a bumper night for Bauhaus fans on Ashes to Ashes last night with not one, not two, but FOUR tracks gracing the background as the team smoked, drank and fought their way through another episode. With them making up almost half of all the music on the show it would have been unthinkable not to choose one of these to feature in our YouTube selection this week, so click through for that and another well-chosen couple of nostalgic ear-worms from the 80s.
Some absolute classics in this week’s episode, including some haunting atmospheric mood music from the fingers of keyboard magician Francis Monkman. No matter how far fetched, ludicrous or opaque Ashes to Ashes becomes, at least it’s still a good excuse to spend an hour having your 80s music memories tweaked, and maybe even dusting off some vinyl and reliving the sound for yourself. Alternatively, with us to do the YouTube searching for you, simply click through for a selection of the tracks from episode 3.
Es regnet Katzen und Hunde! Ho! Ho! That’s right, Germany has a new superstar of television thanks to us writers being completely unable to resist a cutesy-wutesy story about an animal being around and doing stuff. This particular animal was a cat and it casually strolled onto the set of a live weather forecast by Germany’s leading meteorologist Joerg Kachelmann. Ever the pro (thanks to, presumably, the fact he’d seen a cat before) Kachelmann scooped up the studio cat two minutes into his broadcast, not missing a beat. Presumably. I can’t speak German. For all I know, he could have said “Oh my God. My eyes are going to start streaming and I bet the little shit scratches an eye out of the socket.” Unlikely. If you’d like to see the footage, then click over the jump this second.
If you’re old enough to remember the eighties then this week’s second episode of Ashes to Ashes had another healthy dollop of musical memories for you, proving once again that not all the orchestral manoeuvres were in the dark in that decade. Click through for the full list and to discover what YouTube goodies we’ve selected for you this week, or go here for the full Ashes to Ashes picture.
Susan Boyle. Susan Boyle. Susan Susan Susan Boyle. She’s bloody everywhere. She does look a bit like Benny Hill in a wig. She does have the ability to hold a note as well. One thing she won’t have expected however, is to be referenced in South Park. Yep. Britain’s Got Talent‘s very own Cinderella prompts Kyle’s brother Ike to run away from home to live the life of a pirate in an brand spanking new episode of South Park (Season 13a) titled ‘Fat Beard’, which premieres on Friday April 24th at 10pm on Comedy Central (formerly Paramount Comedy). For a sneak peak of the new episode, click over the jump for a video!
Our “soundtrack” feature proved quite popular last year, so we thought we’d re-run it for the second series. Yes, I know the information is available elsewhere. So what? We’ve got extra YouTube footage, better jokes, and you were here anyway, so why clock up extra browser miles? It’s probably greener just to stay here and click through for our version. This time round, instead of featuring classic cars from the series (and/or the eighties) I’ll be sprucing up the soundtrack post headers with featured artists.
If you read my review of Yellowstone, the three part nature documentary which aired last month on BBC Two, you may just have got the feeling that I liked it… ok, so I made that rather obvious… in fact, the verb ‘raved’ may be appropriate. Beautiful and understated, it was a delight from start to finish, but the best moment by far was one I mentioned at the time: a red fox diving head-first into six feet of snow to catch a mouse. Well now those nice people at the Beeb have put it on YouTube for us all to enjoy time again, so pop over the cut to take a look…
Related: TV Review – Yellowstone
This is quite funny. One of the biggest cult TV series of recent years – Battlestar Galactica – has been given the Muppet treatment. Or at least an internet fan has given Battlestar Galactica the Muppet treatment. In the video snip after the jump the Muppets take on the role of the Cylons… you never know, it could happen.
The Sci Fi channel has secured the rights to the remake of David Hasselhoff cult-show Knight Rider. This new version has a new main character and, most importantly, a brand new car. The Sci Fi channel has secured the first UK run of the show, which features Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT! Unbelievable huh? The new show focuses on the son of Michael Knight and the pilot actually features a guest appearance from Hasselhoff himself! The Hoff famously said of his not getting the gig: “It’s like having Indiana Jones without Indiana Jones.” The star is newcomer Justin Bruening who will now be accompanied by a black Ford Mustang as opposed to the old Pontiac Trans Am that featured in the original series. If you’d like to see a preview, get over the jump and have a peak!
Ay caramba! The Simpsons has been refreshingly familiar in titles for somewhere close to 3000 years. Homer getting chased through the garage by Marge in her car, Lisa wigging out on the saxomophone, Maggie going through the checkout… but not for long. You see, The Simpsons makers have decided that it’s time for some new credits. Apparently, these changes are occurring because The Simpsons needs to go HDTV friendly. That’s okay… as long as the ‘toon itself doesn’t end up with that crappy shading like we saw in the film. There’s a lot of familiar stuff in the new credits, along with some new stuff (starting with a crow). You don’t have to take my word for it as these new things can be found in the video of the new title sequence over the jump. Tell us what you think of ‘em!
From:Coronation Street fans apply here