General Critic » Entertainment

Video Test

Geoff — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:57:17 +0000

Classic A&W commercial.

Let the games begin (or, in this case, end)

Geoff — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:10:59 +0000

The gang at golden-road.net is abuzz about the retirement of not one, but two pricing games.

Joker, I can understand. I always hated it — it seems counterintuitive that you’re trying to DISCARD a certain card. It’s also pretty similar to Shell Game and Bonus Game, but with an ugly set.

Poker Game, I don’t have strong opinions about, since it was played fairly infrequently. The consensus, which may be wrong, is that it was killed by being limited to inexpensive prizes. What’s significant is that it’s the oldest game to ever be retired — it was introduced in 1975.

The last of the last

Geoff — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:16:51 +0000

39 years and roughly one thousand cartoons after “Sinkin’ in the Bathtub”, Warner Bros. Cartoons came to an end with an unfortunately titled short named “Injun Trouble.” Last fall I posted a link to this cartoon, with Matthew Hunter’s commentary.

For obvious reasons, it’s generally been kept off television, and is hard to find. But it was included in 1972’s syndicated “The Merrie Melodies Show.” And that series is now airing on Teletoon Retro. Incredibly, the episode in question aired this week. I marvel at this network’s ability to come up with rare stuff like this, and to air it in pretty much its original form.

Saturday Morning memories

Geoff — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:09:12 +0000

Random title cards from the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on CBS.

Why?

Geoff — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:09:40 +0000

Michael Douglas now voices the intro to NBC Nightly News. (See it here… scroll down to the Nightly News podcast.)

Now, Michael Douglas is a fine actor. But he is not a better announcer than the best announcers in the business. This is a typical devaulation of the talents of an entire craft. It’s the same bs they often pull on the awards shows.

Memories…

Geoff — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:29:29 +0000

This guy has posted to Youtube some great old Canadian TV commercials from the 1970s. Some of these are among my earliest memories of TV watching. Everything from beer…

to insurance (and a jingle that’s vivid in my mind)…

and of course, the Colonel!

Uncool

Geoff — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:46:29 +0000

Some time ago I posted a link to the last WB cartoon, “Injun Trouble”. (That link’s dead, now, so don’t bother.) Matthew Hunter at Misce-Looney-Ous has posted it with a commentary… here it is:

Injun trouble (1969) commentary
Uploaded by MatthewHunter

What I wanted to say about this cartoon is that I don’t think it’s nearly as good as many animation people (whom I respect) think it is. But I guess my problem is, I never did “get” the kind of cartoon that’s just a bunch of unrelated gags, like many of the early toons did. I prefer a plot with a beginning, middle, and end, which is typically why I prefer the 1948-64 cartoons. They tend to have a story, instead of just being a lot of “blackout” gags.

(I also think Bob Clampett is overrated. Flame away.)

Oh me, oh my

Geoff — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 03:16:12 +0000

“Tales of the Wizard of Oz” was an early TV foray by Rankin-Bass, the creative team behind all those Christmas specials. Using Canadian voice actors as usual, this show went a step further and did the animation at Canada’s Crawley Films.

The show is badly animated, but the writing and acting are sharp. Because of its CanCon status, the series ran for years and years on Canadian local stations, often at 7 a.m. Here’s an episode (I love the quirky closing theme, by the way.)

Morrie’s wigs… DON’T come off!

Geoff — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 04:33:31 +0000

I just got through watching GoodFellas again, and there’s one thing that bothers me: the music. The soundtrack is highly acclaimed, and I have no quibble with the song choices themselves. But I am bugged by the fact that they tend to bear little or no connection to the year a particular scene takes place. In fact, with the possible exception of “Gimme Shelter”, they’re all at least 10 years older than the scene setting.