Posts Tagged ‘Arts’

Midway through the second quarter of Superbowl XLIV, an ad for Dockers announced that if you logged on, you could get a free pair of pants.

As I was sitting at my laptop anyway, I typed in the URL. I expected a wait, and there was. It took me about 10 minutes to get to the site.

First blow- it’s a contest. You enter to win a pair. Well, not that I was too surprised, so OK, I’ll enter.

Second blow- You can enter for free pants, but unless you go and sign up (separately) for other offers, you have to pay for shipping.

For the actual contest, I had to give my name, e-mail address, gender and zip code. And here comes the CAPTIA….

Third blow and FAIL! I entered all info, clicked submit, and….. nothing! I try again, and… It tells me the page is not available, come back later!

So, did Dockers know that the Superbowl is watched by MILLIONS of people? Apparently not. Nor did they realize a lot of us are gonna be near a laptop or internet equipped device!

I hope they are happy with the millions of hits to their domain. I, for one, am not a fan of a triple dupe!

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of 1927 and 1928.

52 years later, The Razzies arrived.

On March 6th, The 29th Golden Raspberry Awards (as in ‘blowing a Raspberry’) will be held to recognize the worst in film. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J.B. Wilson, the event annually precedes the Academy Award ceremony by one day.

And what a year we had in film! “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and “Land of the Lost” top the pics for worst movie of the year. They each got seven nominations on Monday, including worst picture of 2009 and worst-acting slots for Will Ferrell and Megan Fox.

Other nominees for worst picture include “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”, “Old Dogs” and “All About Steve” with Sandra Bullock, who is also Oscar nominated for “The Blind Side”. If she wins both, she will be the first in history to do so.

As happy as I am to see ‘Land of the Lost’ nominated, the fact that both Miley Cyrus (as worst actress) and her dad Billy Ray, (as worst supporting actor) for “Hannah Montana: The Movie” made me LOL!

Unlike the Oscars, the Razzies are voted on by paid members. For as little as $25.00 a year, anyone can have the bragging rights of being a voting member. To be on the Oscar committee, you have to win and Oscar. This sounds like a lot more fun!

I may join, just to get my licks in on Will Ferrell and company for once again ruining Land of the Lost!

Remember Fridays? The ABC weekly late-night live comedy show, which aired on… wait for it… Fridays!

From 1980 to 1982, it was a welcome relief to the stale ‘Saturday Night Live’. The show was originally 70 minutes in its first season, but was expanded to 90 minutes in season two.

Like SNL, each week Fridays featured music acts and, in the second season, celebrity guest hosts. (You may have heard about the Andy Kaufman debacle!) Also fake newscasts and spoofs of television shows and commercials.

Fridays veered into dangerous territories, with skits about drugs (again, the the Andy Kaufman debacle!) sex, and physical violence. The production values for musical segments were higher, using coloured concert style lighting, as opposed to SNL’s flat white illumination, thus appealing to the MTV crowd.

Fridays had a host of memorable sketches, like SNL:

“Drugs ‘R’ Us” aka “The Crazed Pharmacist”
“Nat E. Dred” – Catchphrase: (Is it turmeric? No no NO no, gimme ganja! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!)
“Battle Boy” (My favorite!)
“Dick”
“Pitkinville, Montana”
“Latin DJ”
“The Three Stooges”
“Live and Be Well”
“Howdy Doody”
“Pastor James Babbit”
“Dancing Chickens”
“The Golden Boys”
“The Monster”

The series ended in 1982. First, ABC decided to expand Nightline to five nights a week, which moved Fridays to air at midnight instead of 11:30. Now, by the end of its first season in 1981, Fridays was outperforming Saturday Night Live in the ratings. The later time slot hurt the show, and Saturday Night Live had performed a major cast and crew overhaul to combat it’s new nemesis.

ABC tried to save the show by putting it on in prime time. The episode was scheduled against CBS powerhouse Dallas, which did nothing to help the show’s moribund ratings. The series was promptly canceled.

Now, 28 years later, DVDs abound from SNL, including some of those early 80’s tragic years. Yet, Fridays remains seemingly unearthed. Why is this?

The answer is really surprising. Apparently Micheal Richards is the only cast member who has the right to approve any home video release. He had that written into his contract. So far, he has not signed off on a DVD release, though some clips of him and Larry David on Fridays appear on the ‘Seinfeld’ Season 3 and 5 DVD’s.

After learning this, I headed for Facebook, and started the ‘Tell Micheal Richards to approve the release of ‘Fridays’ on DVD!’ group!

If, like me, you would love to relive those awesome Fridays moments again, join the group, and lets get our Fridays!