ToadSpeak

I just bought a ticket for Thanksgiving-early December and I expected plane tickets to be expensive, but get this - I paid $12 in seating fees. $12. $6/One Way. TO SIT DOWN. I’m against this on principle because this implies that you could stand up for free. If you’re going to charge me an extra $12, just go ahead and price it into the original fare for crying out loud. As one friend recommended, I’m bringing my own chair mofos!

Ok, not really. But awesome news - Viacom is leasing some eps of the Daily Show and The Colbert Report to Hulu.com. In honor of the occasion, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at that classic Colbert v. Stewart v. Conan brawl:

In behind the scenes segments with Conan’s staffers, they tend to be more entertaining than many of the celeb guests. And who’s at the top of that list? Late Night Associate Producer Jordan Schlansky. I’d post the clips directly but embedding Hulu clips into WordPress is a pain in the ass. From a search on Hulu, here are six clips:

http://www.hulu.com/search/jordan+schlansky?company=nbc&type=clip

For more, there are several full segments on the Strike Beard and Seann William Scott episodes.

I have a tremendous respect for writers because writing well is probably the hardest, most underrated aspect of the filmmaking process. And while I think they are incredibly lucky to have the jobs that they do, writers are, very often, rather kooky sorts who get the short end of the stick when it comes to their piece of the Hollywood pie.

This NYTimes article spotlights the writers’ rooms at TV shows include House, Weeds, Flight of the Conchords, and How I Met Your Mother. Except for that part where you’re under massive pressure to come up with something compelling/funny, sounds fun, no?

I’ve seen the trailer for You Don’t Mess With the Zohan multiple times in theaters by now and I gotta say - I’m not impressed. Not even if there is a secret Steve Buscemi cameo.  I enjoy quite a few of Sandler’s films and Sandler himself is a likeable guy, but I feel like they’re the kind of movies that you don’t pay $10.50 to see - you watch on reruns on cable.  (Exception being Punch Drunk Love and maybe the Wedding Singer.)

So seriously Ebert, WTF is up with the 3 stars? Maybe I’m wrong and Zohan will be comedic gold but come on!.  Low Resolution did a sampling of movies Ebert has rated lower than Zohan and say it with me again, WTF!

Ok, MTV. I know you’re getting a lot of crap these days, what with traditionalists decrying the last of good music videos and the like. I don’t watch enough music videos to weigh in on that, but I will say this:

You did good about The Paper.

If it hadn’t been for Things What Things or Low Resolution, I never would have even heard about this reality show about a group of high school students on the school paper. Well, see for yourself because MTV has full episodes online. There are 8 total so for about 3.5 hours or so, enjoy all the cringe-inducing, pseudo-reality that is high school.

Given how much I love television, sometimes I’m a little conflicted about the idea of Ph.Ds in TV studies. The primary reason being, will you lose your ability to enjoy the show from an entertainment perspective if you’re spending your time analyzing it? Can there ever be a thing as too much TV?

That being said, how cool is this academic conference about papers that analyze Buffy? Way cool.

So one of my former film club buddies made a fake Dockers ad for a Jay Leno-hosted competition.  If “Dress-Up” wins, the ad gets played on Jay Leno next Friday. So, GO VOTE Y’ALL!  Here’s the link:

Title: Dress-Up, Author: bwslocombe, Rate “Superb” with 5 stars

http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/exclusives/Dockers/index.shtml

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I haven’t posted in a really long time, but I have an amazing, A+ excuse lined up - my computer at home wouldn’t let me! Every time I tried to go onto my dashboard and write a post, the damn thing went fritzy.

First off all, my neighbors got cable. Life-changing I tell you! So while summer’s a slow time for TV, there are some notably super-bright spots I can now take advantage of. Project Runway 5 is returning in July, but more importantly MAD MEN is coming back JULY 27TH.

When I first watched Mad Men, my thought was, “Holy schneikies! This was the 60s! The 60s were so recent! Things were like that so recently?!” How it came to be on AMC is a testament to 1) HBO’s folly and 2) the growing competition in the cable sphere in developing interesting, prime-time fare.

I will most likely also check out The Singing Office, too, mainly because I have this deep down (Ok fine, not that deep) desire that we could just break into musicals in real life occasionally. The premise of the show isn’t as compelling as the idea that we could break into song at work. Break out those jazz hands, y’all.

I re-watched Spellbound earlier this week, and found myself utterly charmed again by those eight kids. Wondering how they fared, I Wikipedia-ed Spellbound. First, I cracked up and smiled because I’d forgotten that one of the kids ended up going to the U of C.  Aw, U of C y’all! But then I read that one of the kids had passed away, and while death is never a particularly celebrated matter, this seemed especially  stunning and cruel given just how much sweet, smart kids have to offer the world. (You may be cotton candy entertainment but this does not include YOU, you talentless female and male starlets. These are not the people who will solve crises and create innovate solutions, but I digress).

As much as I am a pop culture news junkie, it’s always nice to hear good news about bright, smart children.  While I don’t believe that book smarts can solve all of the world’s problems, I do believe so many problems exist that you can never have too many of these types. This brings us to: The National Geographic Bee, where the average contestant there knows more than the average adult.  The winning question was, “Cochabamba is the third-largest conurbation in what country?” Congrats to 11-year old Akshay Rajagopal!