By Jonathan 8-2-10
Well it’s nice to see Shaun Micallef back on the television with his TALKIN’ ‘BOUT MY GENERATION. Why a show with a line from a WHO song as its title has the riff from ‘SMOKE ON THE WATER’ in its theme music I don’t know.
Also, the show was already being shown in 3D! A photo is in 2D but a moving image has height, width & time! Therefore the show with the 3D glasses should have been called 4D! But I won’t go on.
I also enjoyed Shaun’s New Year’s Special. It was very reminiscent of his Channel 9 MICALLEF TONIGHT show: the wheel segment; the Pete Smith voice over & Francis Greenslade. I wonder if Shaun will eventually replace ROVE LIVE with his own brand of variety show. He’s already on Channel 10.
If you heard the commentary on his MICALLEF TONIGHT dvd, he said he wasn’t very comfortable doing interviews, proper interviews. He was often not listening to the interviewee but was preoccupied waiting for the opportunity to insert a joke. Personally I think there are lots of interview shows out there, just as there are lots of game shows. I’d rather watch Shaun doing his quirky, rather surreal version that tends to throw the guest off balance a little with unexpected twists & turns.
I know all the usual expected twists & turns, I want to be surprised!
By Jonathan Scutt 5/12/09
At last my beloved QUARK is out on DVD! This is a sci-fi comedy from 1978 featuring Richard Benjamin as Captain Adam Quark leading a strange bunch of characters around in the United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol garbage ship. I remember this show from my childhood but unfortunately they only made one series & it was only shown once as far as I can remember.
If you’ve seen Richard Benjamin playing it straight in Westworld, then it will be hard to watch that film again after seeing him hamming it up in Quark.
His crew consists of Jean/Gene, a transmute whose behavior veers from macho space ranger one minute to sensitive female the next.
Then there are the Bettys. Played by every man’s fantasy, identical twins! Tricia & Cibbie Barnstable are a female & her identical clone, made from a cell from under the finger nail. They speak & move in unison, but neither of them is sure which is the actual clone. If you like hot blondes then you probably won’t care which is the clone.
Quark’s version of C-3PO is Andy the cowardly robot. The pilot episode featured his creator professor O.B. Mudd but he was replaced in the series by Ficus the Vegeton. He is a humanoid vegetable who owes a lot to Mr Spock. Compared to Ficus however, Mr Spock is a virtual drama queen of emotions!
Finally there is Adam Quark’s boss Palindrome played by Conrad Janis who was Mindy’s father in Mork & Mindy. (If you can remember back that far). Palandrome runs the space station Perma One & answers to his boss the Head, who is a giant head.
The show was made around the time of STAR WARS & was very much a parody of sci-fi, but it owes a lot more to STAR TREK, especially with the subtle in joke about a Roddenberry bush! An episode entitled May The Source Be With You, is an obvious parody of STAR WARS long before Family Guy or Robot Chicken. Another episode entitled Vanessa 38-24-36 is an obvious parody of 2001 with Vanessa the computer instead of Hal 9000.
For those of you who love sci-fi, & have never heard the Head’s catch cry: ‘The galaxy ad infinitum!’ then you should check out Quark & maybe put it in your DVD collection along side Big Bang Theory. (Did I ever tell you about Big Bang Theory?)
By Jonathan Scutt 16/11/09
Fortunately Channel 9 didn’t dump Big Bang Theory in favor of Two & a Half Men. In fact they finished showing season 2 & are now showing season 3! The show is obviously not as high-brow for their audience as I feared.
I have my season 2 DVD but I’m a little disappointed that there are no cast & director’s commentary for each episode. I always enjoy listening to the commentaries. Dr Who even have subtitles describing the production of the TV series as well as the commentaries from actors, directors etc.
The new Robot Chicken Star Wars Part II DVD has 5 or 6 different commentaries. It even includes a commentary featuring Frank Oz who played Yoda. He didn’t even appear in the Robot Chicken DVD but somehow he’s ended up on a commentary. That’s dedication for you!
I made a version of my FAMOUS FOR 15 METERS! documentary with director’s commentary. It was mostly me whinging about people who weren’t much help during the production. But it was also about… no it was mostly me whinging.
I have seen a Dream Theater live DVD with commentary from the band. That’s a bit of a new phenomenon but I think it’s a good idea. Since then I’ve gotten Deep Purple & Rainbow DVDs with commentary. The 1969 live concert ‘Deep Purple Concerto for Group & Orchestra’ has been released on DVD with Jon Lord giving commentary about his composition.
He adds little insights such as Ritchie Blackmore continuing his guitar solo long after it was meant to finish. Conductor Malcolm Arnold was visibly getting impatient, but some of the London Symphony Orchestra were actually tapping their feet along with the rock music.
Apparently one of the timpani players was Tristram Fry who went on to play drums in Sky, so classical musos aren’t always the antithesis of rock musicians.
I also just bought a ‘Gentle Giant’ DVD with a live concert from 1978. This also features commentary from the band which is very enlightening. If you’ve never seen a rock band switch from bass to violin; to trumpet; to guitar; to recorder; to drums; to cello & xylophone; all in one concert, then you should check out Gentle Giant! It’s incredible! These days you’d just press the ‘trumpet’ button on your midi keyboard. Back in the 70s they had to do it all for real!
Add Comments
Comments (1)
Read More
