Halloween Quiz: Television

Posted on October 25, 2012 at 8:00 am

How many of these spooky classics do you know?

1. This animated comedy goes all-out on Halloween every year with its popular “Treehouse of Horror” series.

2. It makes sense that this series about a witch would have memorable Halloween episodes. Probably the best-remembered featured an adventure filmed on location in Salem, Massachusetts, home of the witch trials.

3. A brave and curious little animated girl has to help a little monster find his way home before midnight.

4. This Emmy-winner for best comedy series has a Halloween-loving couple who turn their home into a haunted mansion, but at first everything goes wrong when their family members get caught up in their own drama.

5. The Halloween episodes of this long-running series were a highlight, especially one called “Boo!” where they turned their home into the “Castle of Terror.”

6. Zoinks! This funny-spooky animated series had a number of Halloween episodes, including one featuring KISS.

7. The Halloween episode of this musical series featured songs from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

8. Sisters Laura and Mary try to play some Halloween pranks but instead get spooked themselves in this series based on popular children’s books about 19th century settlers.

9. Liza Minnelli guest stars as the mother of a murdered child in a Halloween episode of this crime drama.

10. The teen star of this series and his cousin want to go to a Halloween party and try to top each other to win dates.

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The Mortified Sessions

Posted on October 20, 2012 at 8:00 am

One of the sharpest insights of the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was its recognition that the most painfully embarrassing memories are almost impossible to forget. And most of those excruciating memories occur in childhood and adolescence. The Mortified Sessions is a television series on the Sundance Channel, now in its second season, that invites celebrities to explore their most humiliating memories. They bring the artifacts of those years to talk about what mortified them then and how those experiences affect them now. David Nadelberg, author of Mortified: Love Is a Battlefield and Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic, is the sympathetic host. Guests have included Oscar-winner Mo’nique, “Dirty Dancing’s” Jennifer Grey, “Breaking Bad” and “Argo” star Bryan Cranston, “Cougartown” and “Freaks and Geeks” star Busy Philips, and “Modern Family” Emmy-winner Eric Stonestreet.

Because we know these people ultimately achieved great success, it is reassuring to see that they struggled with the same doubts and failures and middle school ugliness that we all experience. Nadelberg is supportive, never exploitive, and the show exemplifies the AA maxim that “you are only as sick as your secrets.”

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Actors Television

“That Guy” — Showtime’s Documentary About Character Actors

Posted on October 13, 2012 at 3:59 pm

I have a special affection for character actors. They have to create a character and move the story forward without having the luxury of time and the audience’s primary attention, and they have to do it without overshadowing the star. So I was delighted to see Showtime’s tribute to character actors, a documentary called, “That Guy….Who Was in That Thing.” Candid interviews with actors who all look familiar but not instantly recognizable, who might be mistaken for someone you went to school with or once saw at a family reunion cover touchy subjects like auditions, being a guest star on a show where the stars do not think it is worthwhile even to introduce themselves, going for months without a job, family and financial stress, being stuck with a lot of technical talk or exposition, and the pure joy of having the opportunity to perform. It’s On Demand through November 13 and well worth a look.

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Seth MacFarlane to Host the Oscars

Posted on October 3, 2012 at 8:32 pm

And next year’s Oscar host is…not a stand-up turned actor like Billy Crystal or Whoopi Goldberg or Steve Martin but a man who has never even attended the Academy Awards before and who did not even appear on screen in his first film, released earlier this year. Seth MacFarlane is the highest-paid man in the history of television for his three animated series, “Family Guy,” “The Cleveland Show,” and “American Dad!” He also wrote and directed the raunchy movie comedy “Ted” and provided the voice of the title character, a talking stuffed bear. He hosted the televised roast of Charlie Sheen and, improbably, received respectful reviews for his smooth singing on Music Is Better Than Words, an album of standards, backed by a full orchestra and using Frank Sinatra’s old microphone, on loan from the Smithsonian. He appeared as host of the season opener on “Saturday Night Live” last month but has not otherwise had much experience performing live.

The Hollywood Reporter calls him a “relative unknown” to the people who usually attend the Oscars, but his popularity with younger audiences made him appealing to the producers, trying to stay competitive with slicker, hipper, and earlier awards shows. But they will have to be careful not to alienate the show’s current fans, who may be concerned that he is neither as polished, as experienced, or as respectful as they want. Perhaps it is just those concerns that will attract a record audience.

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Cheers — Happy 30th Anniversary!

Posted on October 3, 2012 at 8:00 am

It was 30 years ago that a television series about a neighborhood bar called Cheers premiered and soon audiences everywhere wanted to go “where everybody knows your name.”

John Ratzenberger told the Hollywood Reporter about his memories of playing bar regular Cliff Clavin, a mail carrier and know-it-all. He did more than play the part of Cliff Clavin — he came up with the idea for the character.

He tried out for the role of beer-slugging bar regular Norm, and after getting turned down — in favor of Wendt — he pitched a whole new character. Though he had spent the previous decade touring around Europe with his improv comedy group, the Connecticut native knew that back home in New England, every bar had a know-it-all, and suggested that the show’s Boston-based pub best have one, too.

He got the greenlight and a seat at the bar, and Cliff Clavin, the blowhard mailman who was a constant stream of false facts and half-true boasts, would become one of four characters to appear in all 271 episodes of the series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MxGC1j2ogM

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Television