As far back in my life as I can remember, I was reading comics. Of course my tastes have evolved over the course of my life, but sometimes I wonder, what would I think today of the comics I loved when I was in early grade school or even kindergarten?
The new collection, The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, selected and edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, and published by Harry N. Abrams’ ComicArts imprint, provides me with an opportunity to find out. It is a superb anthology of stories aimed at small children from comic books published in the period from the 1940s into the mid-1960s, including comics that Baby Boomers like myself grew up with. I intend to devote a number of “Comics in Context” columns to the work of various comics creators that appear in this book.
The first stories I turned to in this collection starred were from a series that was one of my earliest favorites: The Fox and the Crow. These constant antagonists had a long run in comics, from 1945 to 1968, first in Real Screen Comics and then in their own title. The Fox and the Crow comic was probably the first DC Comic I ever read, long before I had any interest in super heroes. Back then there were rarely any credits on comic books, so I had no idea until reading Classic Children’s Comics that the principal artist on the handsomely drawn Fox and the Crow comics was named Jim Davis, who is not to be confused with the Jim Davis who created the comic strip cat Garfield.
But as a child I had no idea that not only did DC not own the Fox and the Crow, but that they had originated in animated cartoons. In the 1980s I finally saw the Fox and the Crow in The Magic Fluke (1949), a UPA cartoon directed by John Hubley, in which the Crow inadvertently gives the Fox, a conductor, a magic wand instead of a baton, leading to chaos; it appears to be the inspiration for a far greater cartoon, Tex Avery’s Magical Maestro (1952). But in The Magic Fluke, the Fox and Crow did not seem much like the versions I recalled from the comics.
It was not until a few years ago that I finally saw the first Fox and Crow cartoon, The Fox and the Grapes (1941), a theatrical cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin for Columbia:
As the title suggests, it was inspired by one of Aesop’s fables, which had been sources for cartoons at Disney and other studios, notably at Terrytoons, since the silent era. Tashlin had worked on Warner Brothers animated cartoons at various points in the 1930s and the World War II years, becoming a director. In 1941 he briefly left Warners for Columbia’s animation department. He even hired Mel Blanc, creator of so many voices for Warners cartoon characters, to create the voices for the Fox and the Crow. Eventually, Tashlin became a live action film director, working on comedies starring Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis, among others, which sometimes seem like live action cartoons in staging gags.
There is no crow in Aesop’s “The Fox and the Grapes,” which recounts a fox’s vain efforts to get hold of grapes high on a tree. (Spoiler warning: as usual I will discuss stories, including their endings, in detail.) Tashlin introduced the Crow, who tries to steal food from the Fox’s picnic spread. The Fox angrily retaliates by giving the Crow a hotfoot. The Crow then finds the fable of the Fox and the Grapes in a book and decides to restage it. He hangs a bunch of grapes on a tree branch high above the ground, and offers to trade them for some of the Fox’s picnic food. Though immediately obsessed with the grapes, the Fox refuses. So the Crow then watches placidly as the Fox makes repeated and ever more elaborate attempts to reach them, all of which backfire on him. Chuck Jones is said to have cited Tashlin’s The Fox and the Grapes as an influence on his Roadrunner-Coyote series.
The Fox and the Crow as portrayed in this cartoon were closer to the versions I recalled from the comics, though I remembered their conflicts as more personal and verbal. Tashlin only directed this first Fox and Crow cartoon before returning to Warners, but Columbia made a whole series, mostly directed by Bob Wickersham. Mel Blanc did not continue performing the Fox and Crow, but the voices he gave them were imitated in subsequent cartoons. Wickersham’s Woodman, Spare That Tree (1942) isn’t as good as Tashlin’s cartoon, but the Fox goes to even greater extremes, using an elephant and a train to try to knock down the Crow’s tree:
By Mr. Moocher (1944) the Fox lives in a handsome suburban house, and the Crow is his lower class next door neighbor, living in a shack:
This brings the characters close to the setting in the comics, in which the Fox’s house is next door to the Crow’s tree from the first cartoon. (UPA produced the last three Fox and Crow cartoons before Columbia ended the series.)
I was startled to see the Fox make his entrance in the Tashlin cartoon, prancing, skipping and singing along through the woods, acting as if he might have been meant to be a coded gay stereotype. In the comics the only traces of this seem to be the Fox’s first name, Fauntleroy, and possibly elements of his costume, like his big, floppy bow tie. I certainly didn’t see the implications when I read the comics as a child, and I doubt if many other readers my age did, either.
As for the Crow, in the comics his first name was Crawford, he wore a derby and smoked cigars, and spoke with a “dese” and “dose” dialect. As a child I had no idea at the time that crows could represent African-Americans in cartoons. One of the best known examples are the crows in Disney’s Dumbo (1941). Similarly, when I was a child, my favorite character in the Famous Studios (later Harvey) animated cartoons was Buzzy the Crow. Not until I saw some Buzzy cartoons recently did I realize that actor Jackson Beck (the longtime voice of Bluto in the Famous Studios Popeye cartoons), was attempting to give Buzzy a black Southern accent.
The crows in Dumbo remain controversial for being caricatured black stereotypes, but I suspect they were intended by the Disney studio as positive characters. Dumbo, the baby elephant with the enormous ears, is a misfit in the circus community. The crows also initially mock Dumbo, but after Dumbo’s friend Timothy the mouse explains how Dumbo has suffered, the crows become the elephant’s friends and supporters. In short, Dumbo has become an outcast from what is, for him, mainstream society, and is instead embraced by the alternative, more tolerant community of the crows, who are themselves outsiders.
As for Buzzy, he strikes me as being a surprisingly positive “black” character, considering his cartoons were made over a half century ago. He is a brilliant trickster figure, like a Bugs Bunny or Woody Woodpecker, who continually outsmarts his nemesis Katnip the cat, who sounds like a dumb white guy. See, for example, their tussle in Cat-Choo (1951):
Was Tashlin’s Crow–and the version in the comics–also meant to be a coded African-American? Probably not: in Tashlin’s original cartoon Mel Blanc gives the Crow what might be a lower class New York accent, maybe from Brooklyn, which the comics render by having the Crow say things like “dese” and “dose.” In one of the stories in this collection, the Crow exclaims, “What a revoltin’ development this is!”, a catchphrase used by William Bendix as the blue-collar white protagonist of the radio series The Life of Riley, and later appropriated by the Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm.
So the clashes between the Fox and Crow have a subtext of class warfare. In the comics the Fox is an effete, prosperous bourgeois, perhaps WASP-ish, living in a nice house with a refrigerator well stocked with food; the Crow is his neighbor, who is clearly not prosperous and lives in a tree with various holes in the trunk that serve as a window and door, and seems of uncertain ethnicity. The Crow is continually attempting to con the Fox out of food or money, and, although Don Markstein’s Toonopedia advises that the Fox can be triumphant, it would appear from the evidence in Classic Children’s Comics that the Crow is more often than not the victor.
Classic Children’s Comics starts out its “Fox and the Crow” section with three short gag strips, two of which consist of only a half page each. These establish the basic pattern, in which the Crow cleverly outfoxes the Fox, who can be formidable in his anger. But though a fox is a more typical trickster figure in stories, Fauntleroy can’t quite keep up with Crawford Crow. For instance, in one of these short strips, the Fox discovers the Crow has gotten into his refrigerator and threatens to lock him inside. But the Crow is a step ahead of him and has bought an “Eskimo suit” and so will be perfectly comfortable staying inside the refrigerator indefinitely.
These three short strips set up the collection’s eight-page-long story “The Great Chiseler” from Real Screen Comics #42 (1951), which is a little masterpiece, surprising in its sophistication. The Crow starts out by soliloquizing about his own brilliance, saying “If dey gave da Nobel Prize for bein’ a great chiseler, I’d win every year!” This is hubris, as we soon see.
The Crow tries to con the Fox by asserting the Fox owes him money for breathing his air. While the Fox loses his temper over this, the Crow remains cool and calm. This is a pattern you should recognize from Bugs Bunny cartoons: Bugs keeps his cool and thus easily manipulates adversaries like Daffy Duck or Yosemite Sam, who are blinded by their own emotions. In this instance the Crow points out the fact that the wind carries air from his tree over to the Fox’s house, and then demands that the Fox pay up or stop breathing. The Fox’s panic at the idea that his air supply will be cut off keeps him from punching a hole in the Crow’s logic. The Fox looks literally dazed, and it looks as if he is about to pay the Crow for his air.
But tales of tricksters often work better when the trickster’s target can be clever as well. The Fox suddenly has a brainstorm, heads into his house, and reemerges holding what the Crow identifies as “an issue a da comic youse an’ me are in.” The Fox angrily says that the Crow pulled the same trick on him in this issue, and he won’t fall for it again.
And thus this kiddie comic has abruptly shifted into what we would now call metafiction. The Fox and the Crow are aware that they are characters in comic book stories, although neither seems at all perturbed by the notion. Whatever they do will appear in a comic book, and they know it. This even echoes Tashlin’s original cartoon, in which the Crow reads about the fable of the Fox and the Grapes and then decides to stage his own version. In Woodman not only does the Crow consult an “encycrowpedia” for ideas, but the book comments on what happens in the cartoon.
Moreover, when the Crow heads off to prepare another trick, he runs into the Fox, holding a towering stack of comic books. “I have every issue of Real Screen Comics,” the Fox tells him, so he has reference on every trick the Crow has ever pulled on him. “The Great Chiseler” was first published in 1951. Can this be one of the first references in comics to comic book collecting, or to keeping track of comic book continuity?
Now the Crow, who usually keeps his cool and control of the situation, becomes flustered and angry. On page 1 he was complimenting himself on how quickly and easily he comes up with new ideas; now he realizes that he has just been recycling old ones. The Crow is suffering from something similar to writer’s block: after all, his schemes are what usually drive the comics stories he and the Fox appear in. He quickly concocts a new trick, and it nearly works, but the Fox sees through it. Now the Crow worries that he is in effect over the hill in his chosen profession of con artist: “If I fail now, I’m t’rough! Washed up! Finished!” He’s like a creative figure going through a midlife crisis.
Finally, the Crow has the Fox calculate how much he has cheated him out of on various occasions, and then announces that since “me chiselin’ career is over,” he is moving away. The Fox realizes that if the Crow leaves, he will never be able to get any of his money back from him. The Fox goes into hysterics while the Crow remains calm and cool: they are back to their usual relationship. The Fox then offers the Crow more money to get him to stay. To put it in contemporary economic terms, it seems that the Crow owes the Fox so much money that he’s become “too big to fail” and has to be bailed out!
The Crow, ah, crows in triumph, not so much over getting ten bucks from the Fox, but from successfully devising a brand new trick, thereby proving his creativity is still at its peak. The Fox balances the scales somewhat by beating the Crow up between panels, but the Crow is still triumphant. Notice that he even uses a metaphor characterizing himself as an author to describe his victory: “I added another great chapter in da history of chiselin’!”
The 1950s are infamous in comics history for the charges that comic books influenced juvenile delinquency by supposedly promoting violence and immorality. I expect that The Fox and the Crow flew under the radar of the censors of that time. But here are stories in which the Crow continually tricks the Fox out of food and money, and gets away with it. But that doesn’t bother me: through his arrogant anger and his refusal to share, the Fox seems to deserve to be conned by the Crow. The stories are based on the surefire appeal of seeing the little guy who doesn’t have much outsmart the smugly self-satisfied big guy who has more than he needs. The appeal that the Fox and the Crow had for kids is clear: the Crow is the kids’ surrogate, using his wits to get the better of the taller–read “adult”–Fox on whom he is dependent.
When I was a small child, I thought that The Fox and the Crow was one of the best comics I read, and it’s a pleasure, reading the Fox and Crow stories in Classic Children’s Comics, to discover that they really were as clever, as well constricted, and as handsomely drawn as I thought they were in my childhood. Not only that, but I see that they had a level of sophistication that makes them appeal to me as an adult, as well. In this and some of the other impressive comics in this collection, I get the feeling that the creators felt they had great creative freedom because no one was really paying attention to little kids’ comics at the time–except the kids themselves. It’s rewarding to discover that my taste in comics from early childhood was so good!
Last week FOX did something very unusual by giving us a full episode preview of their fall show Glee. Originally I wasn’t going to watch this show because to me it seemed to be a show created to try to tap into to the High School Musical craze. I then remembered how I originally wrote off The Secret Life of the American Teenager due to pre-conceived notions without seeing a single moment of the show. Seeing as how I’m trying to at least be perceived as an actual TV critic I realized it was my duty to watch this show and actually make an educated decision.
First and foremost I would like to emphatically state that I thoroughly enjoyed Glee and think that the only major problem I had with the show after watching it was the fact that I was going to have to wait until the fall to see more of it.The show is about a former glee club member turned teacher Will Schuester (played by Matthew Morrison) who takes over the completely underfunded and underappreciated glee club for William McKinley High School (the same school name from Judd Apatow’s critically acclaimed and short lived Freaks & Geeks). From there the show begins to present to us the typical players of a high school drama with the popular quarterback Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) who hides his real passion in fear of ridicule, the over-achieving girl Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) who wants to be a star to the degree that it alienates her from the rest of the student body, the affeminite and fashionably conscious male Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), the shy asian girl Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), the powerful african-american singer Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), and the nerd (not just nerdy but also in a wheelchair… nice touch). We are also introduced to the pain that Schuester has to deal with competing for the rights of his glee club at a school where the cheerleading squad is a national competitor that gets the majority of the school funding. His pain also extends to the home with a very over-controlling and dependant wife (who clealry doesn’t appreciate him). The dynamic with is wife is further complicated by the clear adoration and support that he receives from germaphobe co-worker Emma Pillsbury (played by Jayma Mays).
This pilot episode had a lot to set up so I can’t fault them for going deeper into the background of Kurt, Tina and Mercedes. The fact that these characters still exist to be fleshed out helps give us more to look forward to as well. There is plenty to still be explored in the other characters that we’ve only seen briefly like Finn‘s chearleader girlfriend Quinn (Dianna Agron) and fellow football player Puck (Mark Salling). I’m also very interested to see more of the backstory to Emma Pillsbury and look forward to the guest stars that this show could undoubtedly pull in.
Of course the show couldn’t be a hit if the musical numbers aren’t good. The performance of Rehab by the competing high school’s glee club definitely was both entertaining as well as conflicting in the words vs. the clean cut presentation. When we see our main characters finally perform at the end of the show Journey will be stuck in your head for a few hours as you are left longing for more.
Now that I’ve expressed all of my glee about Gleelet’s move on to what we can watch in the next 7.
MONDAY
Memorial Day is all about celebrating those that serve the U.S. military with their service and sacrifice. Nothing says that more than the tradition of the television marathon.
HIST: The history channel offers up an all-day marathon of MonsterQuest.
TLC: Just as they’ve done the entire weekend, Jon & Kate Plus 8 marathon’s up to the 9 PM premiere of the new season.
A&E: There’s nothing more uplifting than watching an entire day of Intervention.
TUESDAY
THECW – 8:00 PM: Sadly tonight is the final episode (probably ever) of Reaper. When the show was given the 13 episode pick-up last year the show’s producers said that this finale would give a certain level of satisfaction, so will Sam actually win his way out of his deal with the Devil? Either way I’m really going to miss Ray Wise as the Devil.
NBC – 8:00 PM: You have to ask if they NBC is really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel with TV’s 50 Funniest Phrases. Yes, two hours of prime time dedicated to D’oh!, Where’s the Beef?, and Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout Willis?
FOX – 9:00 PM: I don’t know much about Mental, but it’s a new show so I’ll at least be checking it out. Is it the House of psychiatry? I’ll let you know.
WEDNESDAY
ABC – 8:00 PM: The painful smackfest that is Wipeout returns. It’s self-inflicted suffering at it’s finest.
CBS – 8:00 PM: George Strait: ACM Artist of the Decade All Star Concert has Jamie Foxx (and a whole lot of others that make for more sense) some how paying tribute to George Strait. Can’t wait to see how this plays out.
ABC – 9:00 PM: ABC once again hopes to come up with an animation hit with The Goode Family. It’s by Mike Judge so I’m also trying to hold out hope, but sadly I don’t have much.
THURSDAY
ABC – 8:00 PM: Strap in for a night of thrills and excitement as Tom Bergeron hosts the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
DISCOVERY HEALTH – 8:00 PM: Oprah‘s personal trainer Bob Greene tries to break the yo-yo dieting cycle of three individuals in I’m Fat Again: A Best of Life Special. I’m sure he can help, it’s not like Oprah has that yo-yo dieting problem. Speaking of Oprah…
CNBC – 9:00 PM: CNBC takes a look at what happens when Oprah pimps a product for you. I wonder if Bob Greene will be on this too?
FRIDAY
FOX – 8:00 PM: Mark McGrath tries to help out Gary Dell’Abate win money for the charity LIFEBeat. Here’s hoping he does a lot better than that first pitch for the Mets! (Bababooey!)
ABC – 9:00 PM: Financial advisor Mellody Hobson talks to a bunch of rich people, including Will Smith and Samuel Jackson, about the basics of financial knowledge and management. Glad to see she’s taking a real Main Street perspective on this one.
SATURDAY
HIST – 2:00 PM: A 10 hour marathon of the first season of Ice Road Truckers might just get me to not leave the house today.
TBS – 7:00 PM: Apparently it’s bad Will Ferrell movie night on TBS with Kicking & Screaming followed by ANight at The Roxbury.
ABC – 10:00 PM: There are only 6 episodes left to the amazing yet cancelled show Pushing Daisies and it looks like the alphabet net is finally going to let us see them with tonight’s return of the show. Enjoy the Pie Maker with me as we kick off one last run will you?
SUNDAY
MTV – 8:00 PM: What will The Hills be after Laura Conrad leaves? I have no idea, I don’t watch.
TBS – 8:00 PM: As a fan of Clive Cussler novels I was excited to see Sahara. When it turned out it was another movie to feature Mathew McConaughey‘s chest? Not so muh.
MTV – 9:00 PM: This year Andy Samberg hosts the MTV Movie Awards. I might actually tune in for once.
– Will Wilkins now returns to his regularly scheduled broadcast.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine: The Off-Screen Comedy Hit of the Summer
The day is fast approaching, X-Men fans. The day when you can legally plunk down your money and see X-Men Origins: Wolverine on a big screen and not have to worry if the neighbors down the street could see you watching the bootleg copy you downloaded from Pirate Bay through the window.
Now by all indications, Wolverine is pretty good. The advance screenings have gone well, the advance buzz from the press has been good so it’s a fair bet that, if you liked the X-Men films, you’ll like Wolverine. Yes, I’ve seen it. Both versions, just to give full disclosure – the version screened for press and the version that’s been floating around the net that got Roger Friedman fired over at FOX. I like this film more and more every day and not because of what’s on the screen.
The leaking of the mostly complete work print of the film has been one of the most unintentionally hilarious chain of events in recent entertainment history. As soon as the film hit the peer to peer networks, the studio raised the alarm. Which meant that the story was all over the press, not just Access Hollywood & Entertainment Tonight. That one act probably added more users to Bit Torrent than anything since, oh, maybe the last film that got leaked to the web early.
It isn’t that I don’t want to see the studios make a profit on films that genuinely deserve it and to be honest, Wolverine deserves it. And yes, the studio has to try and aggressively protect their copyrights, especially in situations like this. The person responsible, who probably will be found, is going to be spending a lot of time in the new Jack Valenti Re-Education wing of the State Penitentiary. But recent actions prove that the people calling the shots in Hollywood still just haven’t got a clue where this internet thing is concerned.
FOX’s big plan to make sure they get all those potential popcorn munchers into the seats opening weekend? Circulate two sets of endings on different prints. What the fuck?
Okay, for the 5 of you out there who didn’t download Wolverine or watch a copy at a friend’s house who did, the film features, like all recent Marvel Comics-based movies, a couple of “Easter eggs” (I really hate that term being used for extra scenes in credits but that’s a rant for later *-see below) during the closing titles. One is early and the other is a tag after the final credits have rolled. The prints shown to most (but apparently not all) press screenings contain two scenes that are different from those seen in the leaked copy. Not that those two bits have been scrapped, mind you – they still appear on half the prints. The other half of the prints have the tags from the press screening.
Confused yet? It gets better. There’s no way to tell which print you’re going to see. It’s like buying 100 boxes of that damn cereal to finally get Enterprise com badge from that new movie to with the 99 Klingon badges you’re giving away to people in the street. So this is how FOX is being a stern parent with us bad little kiddies who only live to give them cash – you were bad so now you have to keep paying us to make sure you completist fanboys (and girls) get to see everything.
Can I lead the congregation in a resounding “fuck you“?
Every indication is that Wolverine will follow in the steps of some of the most widely distributed peer to peer theatrical releases which have also made massive amounts of money at the box office. The Lord of the Rings films and the Star Wars prequels are perfect examples of films that don’t seem to have had their box office dented in any significant way by being traded over the internet. FOX apparently has a good film but instead of letting the film perform, they’ve decided to try this bait and switch tactic with viewers.
Listen, FOX, I get that you’re pissed off about the leak. Really, I do. It would piss me off too. But it happened and unlike some other films this has happened to, it has resulted in almost universally positive reactions. Making people just kind trust blind luck and drop more money to make sure they see what amounts to maybe two minutes of different footage at the end of 90 minutes of film? Not making yourselves any friends with your public, gang. There’s a reason theaters started posting which ending of the film Clue they were running – theatergoers were getting pissed off if they saw the same ending twice. The gimmick worked well enough for that film (God knows, that clusterfuck needed a gimmick) but it’s not going to work for you here.
Why, you ask?
Because within 24 hours the additional “Easter eggs” will be posted online for all to see. Frankly, if I’d slapped down somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 bucks to see a film and didn’t get to see all of it, I’d feel justified in downloading it.
You’ve got a little time left, FOX, to do the right thing. Come up with some kind of code or ticket or some goddamn thing for people who buy a ticket to the film so they can see all four of the tags online. It’s not perfect – if you intended to run 4 tags during the credits then you should run all four of them as far as I’m concerned. It’s at least something that doesn’t make it look like you’re trying to steal money from the very people who are actually spending the money to go to the theater. You aren’t penalizing the people who downloaded your film, you’re punishing the very people who stand to help you make some good money. That’s like sending the clerk at the convenience store to prison after he got robbed because you couldn’t catch the thief. Just relax, FOX, Wolverine is still going to make money.
Provided, of course, that Star Trek doesn’t kick your ass next week.
##
* Okay, “Easter eggs”.
By definition, “Easter eggs” are something you have to hunt for, not something you sit on your ass and wait to be handed to you. If that were the case, they’d be called welfare checks. The whole point of an “Easter egg” is having to find it either hidden in the menus of a DVD or on a web site somewhere. An extra tag in the credits is not an “Easter egg”. Jackie Chan’s outtakes at the end of his films are not “Easter eggs”.
No, if FOX wants to take the four Wolverine tags and hide them on the film’s web site, that would be an “Easter egg”. Sorry, gang, I’ve just been seeing the studio and as a result the press throwing the term around all week and it has just bugged the shit out of me,
Greetings one and all as we start the next to last of our discussions on the upcoming new shows on TV. This week I am taking a look at the offerings that the FOX network is giving us (and in the way of new shows, there aren’t many).
Fringe (Premieres 9/9) – When the previews for this show starting airing I had absolutley no clue what it is about. The only thing that we knew is that things blew up, bad things happened to people, and the show was executive produced by JJ Abrams. After seeing the pilot for Fringe (the name comes from fringe science, ie: regeneration, teleportation, etc.) I can tell you that it has the potential to be the successor to The X-Files as the show sets up the premise for good stand alone episodes as well as story arc episodes. The acting is good, the plot holds up, and the first five minutes of the show is truly frightening to watch (after you see it you will also wonder if Abrams and company have something against flying as the pilot for LOST was another example of why people are afraid to fly). FOX has a lot of faith in the show as it is one of the only two shows that they are trying their new “Remote-Free TV” advertising strategy that expands shows to have only 7 minutes of advertising time. I think their faith might be justified.
Hole in the Wall (Premieres 9/9) – When I first heard this show name I thought it was something dirty or a situation comedy set in an old bar. It’s actually a game show where there is a moving wall that comes at contestants. The hole is a different shape that contestants must contort their body to fit through (like a plus symbol or the number four). Can’t fit? The wall will knock you into the pool of water behind it. This is a HUGE game show in Asia, so FOX thought they would try their luck with it here.
Do Not Disturb (Premieres 9/10) – Let out a groan with me as FOX brings us another work place sitcom. This time instead of a news room the show is set at The Inn, a New York hotel voted one of the 10 best places to stay. It’s run by Jerry O’Connell who is dying to find another steady job since Crossing Jordan ended. Niecy Nash from Reno 911! is the head of HR who keeps O’Connell in check. I won’t even bother looking at the rest of the cast as I’m sure they’re going to have eye candy at the front desk, a newcomer to the big city handling bags or room service and the “awkward chick” working some other part of the hotel. It’s a sitcom and it is on FOX. Let’s face it, this won’t rock your socks off. Mind you I haven’t seen it, but I’d lay money on the fact that it will limp through the first season and go no further.
Dollhouse (Mid-Season Replacement) – All right, I admit reviewing the show now is a stretch because it isn’t coming out in the fall, it is slated for January no matter what. Dollhouse however is the other show that will be “Remote-Free TV” so I thought it was worth mentioning. The show is also from TV guru Joss Whedon and features Buffy alumni Eliza Dushku. We’ll talk about what the show is like when we get closer to January, but it is one of the ones that I’m looking forward to.
And on that note, queue the schedule…
MONDAY
FOX – 8:00 PM: Finally we will know how Cameron fared in the Jeep explosion and we get to see where this story will continue to go on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
HIST – 8:00 PM:A computerized rendition of the Zapruder film leads is the basis for two hours of The Kennedy Assasination: Beyond Conspiracy.
FOX – 9:00 PM: I dared them to get better, and they may have just done it. Prison Break has now become Mission Impossible and The Dirty Dozen as the gang is back together and now they have to breakin to a facility while in a virtual prison while they find the pieces they need before pulling the big job.
SHO – 10:00 PM: It’s the season finale for Weeds and based on what we saw this season it may be the last episode. For me this season came off as hollow and I’m glad at this point that it is over.
TUESDAY
FOX – 8:00 PM: The hype is over, Fringe is here. Enjoy.
CBS – 8:00 PM:Will the 75 year old former Marine finally leave the Big Brother house? I hope so.
FOX – 9:35 PM: Behold the glory of Hole in the Wall!
CW – 9:00 PM: Yet another show on the CW catering to the younger generation with Privileged. The touching story of a nanny in charge of twin sisters who party harder than the Hilton sisters and Olsen Twins combined.
WEDNESDAY
FOX – 8:00 PM: The show is officially in the crapper when someone is found decaying in an outhouse on Bones.
FOOD – 8:00 PM:Alton Brown takes to the seas saling through the Leeward Islands and on to the British Virgin Islands as he looks for America’s culinary origins and fine Caribbean cuising in Feasting on Waves. How does this guy keep getting Food Network to pay for his vacations?
FOX – 9:30 PM: Do Not Disturb may be the name of the show or what you wish you had done instead of watching.
THURSDAY
There is plenty else on, but even 7 years after 9/11 I still remember the day vividly and I am thankful I am one of the few people I know that did not lose anyone on this tragic day in American history. As such I only wish, for this day, to recommend the following:
HIST – 8:00 PM: Rick Rescorla, the director of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, predicts the attack on the World Trade Center and leads 100’s out of the South Tower before dying in its collapse.
HIST – 9:00 PM: 102 Minutes that Changed America – Films, photos and recordings from unique and rarely seen or heard archives chronicle the terrorist attack on New York City’s World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001.
HIST – 10:41 PM: Witness to 9/11 – Interviews with individuals who provided video footage for 102 Minutes that Changes America.
FRIDAY
NICK – 8:00 PM:Â Christopher Meloni proved in both Harold & Kumar films that he has comedic chops. This gives me hope that his playing a coach that has to take a gangly kid from mathlete to athlete to fufill his own dream in Gym Teacher: The Movie will be more than a movie with a catchy title.
USA – 9:00 PM: Monk is trapped acting as a 9 year old child after a hypnosis session goes bad. Same thing happened with my brother when he used hypnosis to try to quict smoking.
FOX – 9:00 PM:Wayne Brady is back for another season of Don’t Forget the Lyrics!
SATURDAY
FX – 8:00 PM: The Wachowski Brothers wrote this film adaption of the Alan Moore comic V for Vendetta. I really enjoyed it, you might to.
NBC – 11:29 PM: Sure he can swim like a dolphin, but can Michael Phelps bring home the gold on SNL tonight? My hopes are not high.
SUNDAY
FOX – 8:00 PM: FOX really wants you to watch Fringe. So much so that they are re-airing the season premiere tonight.
TNT – 8:00 PM: Take in each of the Wilson brothers seperately starting with Owen in Wedding Crashers followed by Luke in Old School.
IFC – 9:00 PM: Not a big fan of Wedding Crashers? You can still get your Owen Wilson on with the very quirky The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
I’m Ken Plume, and soon you’ll be listening to “A Bit Of A Chat” with me, Ken Plume.
As far back in my life as I can remember, I was reading comics. Of course my tastes have evolved over the course of my life, but sometimes I wonder, what would I think today of the comics I loved when I was in early grade school or even kindergarten?
There is no crow in Aesop’s “The Fox and the Grapes,” which recounts a fox’s vain efforts to get hold of grapes high on a tree. (Spoiler warning: as usual I will discuss stories, including their endings, in detail.) Tashlin introduced the Crow, who tries to steal food from the Fox’s picnic spread. The Fox angrily retaliates by giving the Crow a hotfoot. The Crow then finds the fable of the Fox and the Grapes in a book and decides to restage it. He hangs a bunch of grapes on a tree branch high above the ground, and offers to trade them for some of the Fox’s picnic food. Though immediately obsessed with the grapes, the Fox refuses. So the Crow then watches placidly as the Fox makes repeated and ever more elaborate attempts to reach them, all of which backfire on him. Chuck Jones is said to have cited Tashlin’s The Fox and the Grapes as an influence on his Roadrunner-Coyote series.
Now the Crow, who usually keeps his cool and control of the situation, becomes flustered and angry. On page 1 he was complimenting himself on how quickly and easily he comes up with new ideas; now he realizes that he has just been recycling old ones. The Crow is suffering from something similar to writer’s block: after all, his schemes are what usually drive the comics stories he and the Fox appear in. He quickly concocts a new trick, and it nearly works, but the Fox sees through it. Now the Crow worries that he is in effect over the hill in his chosen profession of con artist: “If I fail now, I’m t’rough! Washed up! Finished!” He’s like a creative figure going through a midlife crisis.
The day is fast approaching, X-Men fans. The day when you can legally plunk down your money and see X-Men Origins: Wolverine on a big screen and not have to worry if the neighbors down the street could see you watching the bootleg copy you downloaded from Pirate Bay through the window.