The episode of “Doctor Who” airing tonight here in the U.S. involves a product called Atmos, a sort of combination of OnStar with a miracle pollution-blocker. Unfortunately, it turns out to be part of a sinister plot. It’s sort of funny, because here in Shelbyville the primary source of natural gas is Dallas-based Atmos Energy. I’m guessing the British creators of “Doctor Who” just picked the name because it sounded good; here’s hoping the natural gas people have a sense of humor.

Hormel didn’t have a sense of humor a few years back, when “Muppet Treasure Island” had an ugly villain named Spa’am. They sued for trademark infringement, and lost the suit.

From Sylvania light bulbs, in Thailand. I’m not sure there’s anything I can add:

Hat tip: Best Week Ever.

I think I may have covered the topic before in this space, but I wanted to go back and explain my remark earlier that I won’t enjoy the game play of “Million Dollar Password.”

First, for any of you too young to remember any of the iterations of “Password,” I need to explain the game. It was played by two teams, each consisting of a contestant and a celebrity partner. The object of the game was for one partner to get the other to say a secret “password” by giving one-word clues. The teams would take turns working on the same password — first, the person giving the clues for what I’ll call team “A” would give his or her partner a clue, and the partner would give a response. If that response was wrong, team “B” would take a shot at it, and back and forth until one team or the other got it right. Obviously, each team is listening to the other team’s clues and can benefit from them when it’s their turn

The scoring was simple: guessing a password on the first clue was worth 10 points, on the second clue was worth 9 points, on the third clue 8 points, and so on. The first team to get to 25 points won the game and got to play a “speed round” for cash, guessing as many passwords as possible within 60 seconds.

The original rules of “Password” were simple and elegant. They were also strict. Only one-word passwords were used, and only one-word clues were allowed. There were no names or proper nouns or movie titles or anything like that; just words, from a dictionary. (Sometimes, a particular dictionary would be mentioned by name as part of a sponsorship agreement.) Each password stood on its own.

Later, at the bottom of the post, you can see a clip of this format.
Read More

I don’t think I will like the game play of CBS’s new “Million Dollar Password,” a re-working of my all-time favorite game show. But Regis Philbin is an ideal host, and I am delighted to see that Betty White apparently makes an appearance. It wouldn’t be “Password” without Betty, who met “Password” host Allen Ludden when she was a celebrity panelist on the show and ended up marrying him. Ludden is still, for my money, the classiest game show host ever (possibly tied with Hugh Downs, who at one time hosted “Concentration.”)

Here is what my TV will look like in another week or two:

As I posted the other day, I bought a Monty Python’s Flying Circus complete boxed set during a big sale at Amazon.com. I think I made a good purchase — but soon after seeing the Monty Python set, I saw another boxed set for the same price, and I had a little twinge. Should I have bought that one instead?

Well, my youngest brother and his family gave me an Amazon gift certificate for my birthday, and I decided I would apply it towards that second box set purchase. When I got home this afternoon, I discovered the big sale had ended and the box set had returned to its normal price — but I found it on one of Amazon’s “Marketplace” partner merchants for a price that was pretty much as good as the sale, and that allowed me to apply my gift certificate.

Yes, it’s “The Prisoner,” one of the most imaginative and thought-provoking TV shows of its era, and one I haven’t seen in years.

For those of you too young to remember this show (and I was much too young to appreciate it on its original run), it’s sort of a cross between James Bond and “Lost.” Patrick McGoohan’s character is a British spy who suddenly resigns his position, much to the consternation of his superiors. He is gassed and whisked away to a surreal facility called “The Village.” Everyone in The Village is referred to by a number. The top man on-site is “Number Two,” who reports to a mysterious and unseen “Number One.” (”Number Two” is not a very secure job, apparently, and the person in that role changes constantly throughout the 17-episode series.)

McGoohan’s character, Number Six, can’t be sure who the ultimate power is — his own government? The enemy? Some third party? — and so, even as Number Two uses various schemes, ruses and strategies to try to get McGoohan to reveal the reason for his resignation, McGoohan looks to escape and/or to unravel the mysteries behind The Village.

The one thing about the series that did fascinate me as a young child was The Village’s means of capturing escapees — a big, bouncy white ball which chased the fugitive. (You may have seen it lampooned on an episode of “The Simpsons.”)

I haven’t seen this show in many years and can’t wait to see it again, complete and in proper order.

Title	Content
Movie:	"The Prisoner"
Release Date:	1 June 1968 (USA) / Other Countries
Genre:	Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
Tagline:	No Man Is Just A Number.
User Rating:	1,398 votes, average 9.2 out of 10
Runtime:	52 min (17 episodes)
Awards:	1 nomination
Cast:	...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: UK Language: English Color: Color Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1 Sound: Mono Company: Everyman Films Certification: Singapore:PG | Australia:PG IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
Photos:	N/A
	Powered by IMDBTag

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid ….

I thought Craig Ferguson was very funny at the White House Correspondents’ dinner tonight. He had plenty of barbs to go around, from the administration to the New York Times. He displayed his pride at his new U.S. citizenship but wasn’t afraid to aim a few well-placed barbs.

I just watched the “Masterpiece Classics” (nee “Masterpiece Theatre”) production of “My Boy Jack.” The story centers around how Rudyard Kipling, full of alarm and patriotic fervor at the outset of World War I, conspires with his son Jack to get Jack into the service even though Jack can’t see much of anything without his glasses.

Daniel Radcliffe stars as Jack Kipling, and it’s a fine performance, serious and intense and quite different from Radcliffe’s better-known role as a certain teenage wizardry student. The elder Kipling is played by David Haig, who is absolutely excellent; nuanced and likable and sad in what could easily have been a one-note portrayal. Kim Cattrall of “Sex and the City” plays Carrie, Rudyard Kipling’s American wife. Her role is written in more of a stereotypical way, but she manages to rise above it.

The war scenes are heartbreaking.

In all, it’s a really worthwhile, meaningful production.

I haven’t seen this on Discovery Channel yet, but I will certainly look for it after seeing it on Chris’s blog:

What a hoot. Nice to see Mike Rowe, and of course Jamie and Adam.

Food Network recently introduced “Rescue Chef with Danny Boome,” which is, for all intents and purposes, a remake of Tyler Florence’s old show “Food 911.” A viewer writes in with a food-related difficulty, and Boome visits them at home to teach them a new recipe or technique.

It’s a pretty good show — but Boome got it wrong today. He was making a salad with his pupil today and was teaching her to use a salad spinner to dry the greens. “Let the power of gravity work for you,” he said.

BZZZZZT!

As Alton Brown could have told Danny, a salad spinner works by centrifugal force, NOT by gravity. Gravity comes into place when you drain something in a colander, for example, but gravity wouldn’t work on salad greens because there are so many surfaces for the water to cling to and hide in. The reason you need a salad spinner is because gravity doesn’t work in this particular situation.

A friend of mine — the last person I’d expect to send me a link to a clip by Tim Robbins — sent me a link to a clip by Tim Robbins. This is the last six minutes of a speech he gave to the National Association of Broadcasters convention, and it’s reminiscent of Edward R. Murrow’s speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association which is depicted in the beginning and end of “Good Night, And Good Luck.” It’s not about Robbins’ politics, with which you may agree or disagree. In fact, it hints that we need to improve the level of political discourse among citizens who disagree. It’s mainly about the responsibility borne by the mass media. The link is well worth six or seven minutes of your time.

Ivy shared this Mark Cuban post in Google Reader. It’s a radical proposition (as you might expect, given the source), but it actually makes quite a bit of sense:

If we want to truly change the course of broadband in this country, the solution is simple. Just as we had an analog shutdown date for over the air TV signals, we need the same resolution for analog delivered cable networks.

Transition basic cable networks from analog to digital over the next 3 years and all of the sudden there will be hundreds of megabits available on the smallest cable systems and more than a gigabit of bandwidth available on the largest.

I have to say, I’ve grumbled about the here-and-there erosion of basic cable to free up digital bandwidth — losing individual channels, one or two at a time. But I didn’t really understand the numbers as Cuban explains them. If this were done the way that Cuban suggests, doing away with analog in one fell swoop and making some form of digital package the new “basic” cable, and if the pricing could be kept competitive, it might be a major step forward.

My mother’s birthday was yesterday and one of my nephews has a birthday tomorrow; we celebrated both today at my parents’ home. It was a nice day. I came home and spent some time editing video of the celebration (I don’t post stuff like that online because it would be incosiderate to post video of the kids without their parents’ permission.) My video editing so far has been very basic, and hasty, but I’m continuing to learn and hopefully will improve in time.

Anyway, I watched the autism benefit on Comedy Central tonight. My favorite part was when Chris Rock and Stephen Wright performed each other’s material, near the very end of the show.

Alright, Newscoma, I’ll see your extremely funny TV sketch and raise you 49 or so extremely funny TV sketches, courtesy of a link from my Tarheel-in-waiting brother.