The Live PD Phenomenon

The Bride and I are hardcore "Cops" fans, for well over two decades.  We have even had "Cops" parties watching best of tapes (yes, tapes).  The show is one of the reality television genre that actually is reality as cameras follow law enforcement as they do their jobs.  Certainly however there is an editing process to produce the half-hour program with its three segment formula. 

Still we love it, The Bride to see the good guys doing their job, and myself with the darker sense of humor just for the schadenfreude, a German word meaning taking pleasure in the misery of others.  I have no shame as I know I’m not alone.  If I was alone, no form of reality TV would thrive at all in this country.  We’re all sick voyeurs to one degree or another. 

This past summer we discovered a new series on A&E that goes "Cops" one better.  On Friday and Saturday nights, the busiest of the week for police officers, "Live PD" follows various law enforcement from across the country live as they do their jobs.  This is not an edited down version of a week spent on camera, this is the police on the job, live.

Hosted in the New York studio by Dan Abrams, a legal consultant for ABC News, and veteran police officer Tom Morris, Jr., the show is pulled from precincts across the country as they happen.  Dan and Tom are sometimes joined by Sean “Sticks” Larkin, an officer from the Tulsa Gang Unit and fan favorite, as well as officers featured on the show live, who offer color commentary and explanations during breaks. The hosts and the cops have become stars in their own right. 

The show has become so popular that A&E not only repeats it constantly but has also spun off two or three shows from it, some postscripts to what happened in the real show.  Ironically the show being live, sometimes it ends in the middle of it getting good.  We have waited a whole week sometimes to find out what happened after the cameras go black. 

The Twitter phenomenon of "Live PD" however is something else altogether.  Imagine if "Cops" was not only live, but interactive. That's what is happening here. On Friday and Saturday nights, Twitter is on fire with this show as thousands of viewers Tweet as they watch, they have even helped the police, seeing things on television the cops on the scene missed, like a baggy of drugs thrown out a window in a police chase. Don't forget to use the hashtag #LivePD.

Various places on the show, like bars and hotels and stores in the precincts monitored have become famous, and a bizarre and fun bingo game has developed based on what happens typically on the show. Google LivePD Bingo for a variety of different versions and cards to play along.

"Live PD" returns Friday, so get ready, get your phone out to Tweet along, and your Bingo cards printed up to play along. It's a blast!

The Escape Room Challenge

While not necessarily a new thing, the escape room challenge concept has been sweeping the country of late. The Bride and I recently saw one place featured on one of the myriad reality TV shows she favors, and we were both intrigued. So when we noticed that an escape room, The Escape Room Challenge, had opened in our home town, Marlton NJ, we had to check it out.

The basic concept is that you and a group of friends or strangers are trapped in a room, and using clues at your disposal, or given by the room masters if asked, you solve puzzles and/or mysteries to earn your escape from the room in an allotted amount of time. Otherwise, you are stuck in the room for that amount of time.

Of course I'm not going to tell you what we had to do at the Marlton site, because that would spoil the fun for you folks should you go and attend this great night out (or is it a night in?), but I will say that this room had a Cold War theme, and it was a distinct advantage that The Bride and I were older than our younger co-habitants. It was great fun, and highly recommended.

More rooms with different themes will be coming to the Marlton location, and if you wanted to do the same room again, they keep track, and the puzzles will be different. The same clues will never work the same way twice. Anyone in the area, or if you have one nearby, should definitely check out the Escape Room Challenge.

Same Old Same Old

With the end of this summer's "Big Brother," featuring the dumbest cast of housemates in over a decade, it's time for the return of both "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race." The latter I can take or leave, mostly because I don't know the players. I will tag along watching for a few weeks and see if there's anyone I like, and then decide if I'll keep watching, based on whether there are teams I want to root for, or teams I want to see crash like train wrecks. That's how these types of competitive reality TV shows work for me.

This particular season of "Survivor" has cut out the middleman, so I'm all in. Everyone who is on this season is someone who has been on the show before, thus the subtitle "Second Chance." I already know the players, know who I want to win, and who I want to hiss. I'm in, and I'm enjoying it. This has been a great season of "Survivor" so far.

Some shows come back with the same old same old, and it works, and some it just doesn't. I watched, or tried to watch, the season five premiere of Showtime's "Homeland." I had the same reaction, although much stronger, that I have had in previous seasons. I wanted to shake 'crazy eyes' until she agreed to leave the show. Much like Damian Lewis finally left, it's time for Claire Danes to take off. Her time is done. Give Rupert Friend's Peter Quinn a chance to shine and make the show about action and espionage instead of mental illness and bad decisions.

Which brings us to "Heroes Reborn." We're getting the same old same old again, and again I suspect, there will be no pay off. In the first season of "Heroes," we were introduced to a cast of interesting characters all on a collision course. The final conflict featured them all together, and we all wanted to see them all together again. Seasons after that, until its first death, never delivered that again.

We're here again, with the same formula. We have interesting characters seemingly on a collision course, but I can feel the same tricks and traps happening. The show will fall in love with villains and give them too much screen time, and the heroes the viewers fall in love with will go through hell and lose time to these villains. It's never enough of what we want. We want the wonder of Hiro, not another season of Sylar.

As far as the rest of the offerings this new season go, here's a quick rundown. I like "South Park" better without an inner continuity. "Moonbeam City" is just one joke, and it real old in the first ten minutes. "Fresh Off the Boat" and "The Goldbergs" are still going strong and very funny. I just can't get into "Empire," it feels like a "Power" wannabe that never delivers. As far as the music business goes, I'll wait for HBO's "Vinyl." "Sleepy Hollow," really? They still make that?

"Scorpion," which I do like, despite its wide avoidance of the true story source material it's based on, has gotten both better, and worse. While the stakes are heightened and the action has been turned up, both good things, it has fallen into that relationship hell that killed "Moonlighting," "Lois and Clark," and "Cheers." Yeah, will they or won't they? And if they do, it's just about over.

And if anyone that mentions "Gotham" to me gets a slap. Oh, the potential. The producers should write a book about how to ruin a great show. How do you let a brilliant idea like a police procedural with Batman references fall apart?? It could have been so good…

Sampling the Season

"The Muppets" - I have to admit I wasn't expecting much from this after hearing the premise. The idea of an environment like "The Office" behind the scenes of a Muppet show didn't do much for me, especially with the reality television one-on-one diary room moments with the cast. I would rather see a Muppet show than behind the scenes with a Muppet show.

I needn't have worried. Sure, if still like to see the real "Up Late with Miss Piggy" show, but this was still darned good. We got to see deeper into the characters of some of the Muppets. The bits with Kermit and Miss Piggy were very funny and quite insightful despite the horror they appeared to be in the pre-show hype. And the Fozzie bear jokes in the first episode were hilarious. Thumbs up, I really enjoyed this and can't wait for more.

"Limitless" - This series, like a couple others this season, is based on a movie, in this case one by the same name from 2011 with Bradley Cooper, which in turn was based on the novel "The Dark Fields" by Alan Glynn. Basically there's a smart pill called NZT that does a Lucy on its user, 100% of their brain cells and all that nonsense, only a bit more believable. Oh and unlike most movie to TV products, this isn't a retelling or reimagining, this is a sequel to the film. Bradley Cooper is even in the first episode.


Now, much like "The Muppets," the hype for "Limitless" was more than a bit misleading. The ads made it seem a lot like the Golden Age superhero Hourman, one of my favorites, who gained enhanced speed, strength, and endurance on one hour after taking a pill he called Miraclo. What makes this sadder is the implied potential promise of an "Hourman" show on the CW spinning out of "Arrow" where super-soldiers were created by a drug called Mirakuru. That's not "Limitless," sad face.

That said, it wasn't bad, but it did have the same stink of things like "Journeyman," "Revolution," and sadly, the new series "Blindspot," from the folks who brought us "Arrow," "The Flash," and "Supergirl." While it may be temporarily good, there is an underlying overarcing story that will probably never be resolved. I can't invest that kind of time, so unfortunately "Limitless" and "Blindspot" may be on the losing end of this stick. If they're that good, maybe I'll binge later, but for now, no.

American Idol, Again?

I remember when Neil Young sang those immortal words, "it's better to burn out than fade away." The Bride wanted to watch "American Idol" again this year, so I've been shanghaied into half-watching it as well. There's something to be said about 'burning out' and going out on top or at least close to it. That said, I think "American Idol" has been fading away for the better part of a decade.

I've been watching the show since the beginning and have enjoyed it, bought the songs on iTunes, voted like crazy, entered betting pools, and loved the water cooler talk the next day. But the show's better days are long gone. I barely paid attention last season, and the last time I was excited about AI was when Nicki Minaj was a judge, and that was a while ago.

I tried to watch the first two episodes, that's four hours, folks, and even though it was in the audition phase - when we see the raw superstars and pure train wrecks, arguably the best part of any season - I was bored out of my mind. And it's not that this type of program has gone out of style or popularity either. Both similar programs like "The Voice" and "America's Got Talent" thrive in this current television environment. I think the truth is that "American Idol" just sucks, or to soften the blow, this incarnation of it sucks.

As I half-watched, it's as if this season picked up directly from the last - nothing has changed. The judges, once entertaining, now seem hamstrung, and hesitating and struggling to tell contestants the truth. It is painfully obvious that steps have been taken to make the show more positive and uplifting, so the freak show (and ratings bonanza) that the audition phase has always been, is now dull and less entertaining. Gone are the days of She-Bang and Princess Leia, and it's a sad thing.

We need the freaks back, and we also need the mean back. No one on this show seems capable of telling the contestants what sometimes they need to hear - that they suck. Simon Cowell was the driving force that made this show successful in my opinion, and his "X-Factor" never even came close to matching his performances on AI. Someone needs to be mean and truthful. The new judges can't even be subtle. Keith Urban does the saddest excuse for a Paula Abdul "Nice shirt" comment. I think, "American Idol," it's been a nice run, but it's time to die. Pack it up.

Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart

Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart ~ Before CourtTV, before O.J. Simpson, this was the trial that in the age of tabloid television started it all. There's To Die For, Anatomy of a Murder, and my favorite with Helen Hunt and Chad Allen, Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story. At least three films before this, numerous books, and dozens of TV shows - Pamela Smart is the godmother of television murder trials, and one could say it was almost by design.

Pamela Smart was a media teacher at her local high school, who conned her fifteen year old student boyfriend to murder her husband of less than a year. When the media storm started, before she was a suspect, Smart was the fashionable victim, always looking good for the camera, sometimes even directing the interviews. She was a natural, until she was caught, and then for the camera at least, she went from predator to prey. The media devoured her.

This is the aspect that filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar takes on in his HBO documentary Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart, how the media covered this super tabloid circus, and how it reflects on us today. He also contends that the sensationalism of the coverage decided the trial's outcome in the public eye no matter what occurred in the courtroom. This is done with the help of interviews with many involved, including Pamela Smart.

This is not a bad documentary, very watchable for folks who both know the story and those who weren't around when it was happening. My only complaint is that Zagar drives home his thesis like jackhammer in the early morning. It gets old and annoying very quickly. I don't think there's any doubt that Pamela Smart had her husband murdered, or that she was given a fair trial, but there you go.

Reality Burnout

The season finales for both "Survivor" and "American Idol" were last night, and while I have been a hardcore fan of both in the past, I really didn't give a rat's backside last night, this season, or quite frankly, several seasons. Both of these shows, along with "Big Brother" and "The Amazing Race," are really dependent on the contestants, and that gene pool has been iffy of late.

Of course there's also the attraction of a potential train wreck, and I do love a good train wreck. "The Amazing Race" is more The Bride's wheelhouse than mine but I was digging the mental and relationship breakdown of former "Big Brother" winners Brendon and Rachel. Now that was a train wreck.

However that kind of hot messiness couldn't seem to save "American Idol" this year. I lost interest early in the season when the show refused to highlight the usual freakshow of audition rejects in the cause of positivity. Let's face it, for every Kelly Clarkson, we can list five William Hungs or Ben Haars. That is what makes the show.

Getting back to train wrecks and "Idol," I couldn't believe who the two finalists were this season. Caleb had a strong rocker voice but he had some trouble on Twitter calling his fans the R word. One would think that would be enough to keep him from winning, but I guess the Bible Belt "AI" voters who kept Adam Lambert from winning probably don't care much about being politically correct.

I still don't know how Jena made final ten, let alone final two. Every time I saw her perform she was always butchering one song or another. And none if these judges have courage enough to tell the truth. Harry Connick Jr. comes close at times, but what "Idol" really needs is for Simon Cowell to return. It hasn't been the same, or as good, since he left.

I'm not sure what to watch in the reality TV realm any more. "America's Got Talent" has become a freakshow, and not in a good way, and "The Voice" has always bored me. Well, let's just hope the next bunch on "Big Brother" aren't just another group of vapid model wannabes, but have a but more personality or psychosis than usual.

Idol's Last Hurrah

Even with Syria the top story in the news (and no, I still won't be writing about it), today was a relatively slow news day, and still keeping a low profile amidst the lack of news was the final announcement of the judges on the upcoming thirteenth season of "American Idol."

To make it official, Ryan Seacrest will continue to host the Fox series, and along with returning judges from last season, Randy Jackson and Keith Urban, he will be joined by the returning Jennifer Lopez from season ten, and longtime "AI" friend and fan Harry Connick, Jr. So no Dr. Luke as rumored, no Mariah Carey, and saddest of all, for me at least, no Nicki Minaj.

Without Simon Cowell, the show lost most of its punch and charisma as far as I was concerned, and Nicki Minaj made it worth watching for me. Even the contestants were bland last season, Idol's lowest rated season ever, and Nicki made it entertaining for me, and really she was the only reason to watch. With the new/old crew set for season thirteen, I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling it, and I might not be watching.

The Big Brother Racists

I haven't really talked about "Big Brother" this year, mostly because I've been bored by it. There was no one I liked, no one I wanted to root for. They even included Rachel's sister in the cast this season. One would think, as a Rachel fan, I'd be excited, but no. Please take this the wrong way, but her sister, Elissa, is just Rachel with all the charisma and sexiness removed. And her personality consists of just her being Rachel's sister. Yawn.

There is even a new twist with the eviction process, an added candidate, but none of it was really enough to catch my attention. It really comes down to cast. Cast someone I'll want to like, not a bunch of bland rejects from "90120" auditions. No one here clicked for me.

Then something happened, something both exciting, and fully explaining why I didn't like anyone. There wasn't anyone to like, except for a couple racists, whom are just built for the audience to hate. Trouble is, we haven't been privy to their hate until just recently. Now CBS has opened the doors to reveal these imbeciles to the world.

Houseguests Aaryn, and to a lesser extent, Ginamarie, have been showing their 'true colors' as they have made serious anti-Asian, anti-black, and anti-gay remarks about their fellow houseguests. Really? A twenty-two year old with views like this? I am shocked in this day and age. Are there really monsters like this still walking around in America? Thank the gods she has lost her job while in the house. At least someone is clear thinking.

Now I have a reason to watch "Big Brother" this season, and someone very specific to root against, boo, hiss, and wish misfortunes upon. Don't cry, Aaryn, maybe the neo-Nazis are looking for a new cover girl…



I cannot wait for Aaryn's exit interview …with Julie…

Hoax Hunters

Folks who know me personally know I'm addicted to Coast to Coast AM late nights. They cover lots of different topics on the show, now hosted by George Noory, but the nights that I love are the ones about UFOs, cryptozoology, and conspiracy theories. Yeah, I'm a nut for that stuff. Add in that I grew up in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey, where nobody jokes about the Jersey Devil when they're outside at night - you know I'm a sucker for the new Hoax Hunters comic from Image.

Writers Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley have created quite a phenomenon with Hoax Hunters. It's everything I could want, it's Coast to Coast AM mixed with "X-Files" in comic book form. Described as "Cryptids. Aliens. Monsters. All the world’s bizarre secrets--what if they were real? Their existence would be debunked by a reality TV show! HOAX HUNTERS is that show, publicly disproving all variety of lore. But their real goal is the opposite: as the world’s dark corners surface, the HOAX HUNTERS cover them up. They demonstrate that the truth isn’t out there." Again, what more could I want? The creators have even promised a Jersey Devil appearance in the future.

There are two issues of new material out now, plus a 'zero issue' that collects the stories that first appeared as back-up in Hack/Slash #1-10. Get out to your local comics shop now and check them out! This comic rocks!

Hoax Hunters has a website and blog that you visit here. And don't forget to check out this episode of the Biff Bam Popcast featuring Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley!

How CBS Is Ruining Big Brother

Since the first season of "Big Brother" viewers in the United States have not really been watching the real "Big Brother." American audiences were not receptive, read as low ratings, to the format that had been so successful everywhere else in the world, so US producers made up their own rules. It's become a unique entity, and that's not even getting into oddities like US censorship, editing, and limited viewing or prerecorded broadcasts. "Big Brother" US is its own thing, and it's killing it.

I could get into how incestuous it's become. The only excitement seems to come from having old houseguests return, or having them transplant from and to other CBS reality TV programs. New viewers tend to be turned off by all of this internal continuity faster than a newbie reading an X-Men comic.

There is also the censorship issue. If CBS doesn't want you to see something, and it doesn't happen in the seemingly regulated Showtime late night hours, or you're not subscribed to the paid feed (and even then sometimes), you're just not going to see it. Like the rumors of houseguest Chima threatening to take a dump on the bed - the real ratings-getters never make the grade.

The most infuriating way CBS is ruining "Big Brother" is with their Big Brother Network email subscription service. They apparently don't understand the simply concepts of subject lines, and most importantly, spoilers. I tend to watch my television on DVR, hours, sometimes days later than the original broadcast. More times than I want to admit, I have gotten an email from the BBN with "So-And-So Evicted" in the subject heading. Wtf??

You better straighten up, CBS, I don't know how much longer I'll be hanging around the Big Brother House.

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast for the Week of 5-30-2012

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast is shot live every week at All Things Fun! - the area's best comics and gaming store, located in West Berlin, NJ.

Co-hosts Allison Eckel, and Glenn Walker discuss the new comics out this week in wicked high definition video, and also available on the YouTube. See it here! The much-missed Ed Evans will be back in a couple weeks.

Discussion featured in this special episode includes: The week in Marvel including Mutants, Avengers, and Hulks, Ravagers #1, Batman Beyond Unlimited #4, Batman Annual #1, America's Got Powers #2, Supercrooks #3, other indies, Star Trek meets Doctor Who, Powers #10, the Zenescope offerings of the week, Allison's kids comics including Superman Family Adventures #1, and the trades of the week including Batman Death By Design by Chip Kidd.



Be sure to check out the swell new All Things Fun! website, and the All Things Fun! Blogs, by Allison and Glenn, and ATF! on YouTube.

Special thanks go to Dina Evans who keeps us all in line, and on the straight and narrow, and runs the show from behind the scenes, even when she's on vacation.

And be back here every Wednesday (or Tuesdays at midnight) to watch the new broadcast, and thereafter throughout the week!

The Three Stooges 2012

The Three Stooges ~ I love the Three Stooges. I grew up on the Three Stooges. Everybody loved the Stooges when I was a kid. We would all race home from school to see the shorts on local channel 29. We all loved them, and being a guy (it does seem to be a gender thing), I loved them a lot. And unfortunately I was also a casualty when parents groups shut them down in the early 1970s.

Like most kids, I was aware of the difference between fantasy and reality, and knew you didn't try any of that stuff the Stooges do on TV. Unfortunately those nosy parents who always seem to have too much time on their hands first had the wonderful shorts of the Stooges edited down to almost nothing by taking out the perceived violence (and essentially the humor too), and then by removing them from the air completely. You bastards, you took my Stooges away.

Let's face it, the 1970s was a very bad time for kids television. Parents had a lot of time apparently to ruin it for kids. They took our superheroes away, our Warner Bros. cartoons, our Little Rascals, and our Three Stooges. These were all too 'violent.' Heck, we knew the difference. And from then on, children's television had to watered down, have a message at the end, be educational, and conflict had to be solved through thoughtful discussion rather than Batman punching the Joker, or Moe poking Larry. I'm still not sure about Larry, but trust me, the Joker needed a punch.

Fortunately the video age saved us all, or at least the Three Stooges from this terrible time. On video, we could see the shorts in their original form, uncut and unedited, and we could see what geniuses the Stooges truly were. Today, several cable networks show the shorts on a regular basis, and the Stooges are enjoying somewhat of a renaissance. And perhaps that is what has spawned this new movie, The Three Stooges.

When I first heard of the Farrelly brothers making a new Three Stooges movie I have to admit I cringed. These are the guys responsible for such masterpieces as Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary among others. Not that their work is bad, but even when it's good, there is always some quantity of potty humor and slob comedy. Humor for ten year olds is what it is, and although I don't want to think it - it's the perfect team to return the Stooges to the big screen.

When I first saw the trailer, I was iffy, and as a Stooge fan, I was extremely wary. I am here today to say I have seen the film, and wow, I had no reason to worry, as a matter of fact, it was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. I laughed until there were tears in my eyes. Yeah, baby, it's that good.

The movie follows the boys from childhood into a Blues Brothers like plot of trying to raise money for their orphanage, and it's done in three episodic segments stylized like the shorts of old. The new Stooges do wonderful jobs of imitation and homage. Many of the stunts, the effects, and even the gags are directly from the old shorts and done with respect and humor. The first two segments are flawless Stooges extended shorts. The third segment does move into French farce as well as slapstick, but that's okay, I still dug it.

The nearly unrecognizable Sean Hayes as Larry, television veteran Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe (I'll never be able to watch "24" with a straight face again, and Will Sasso from "Mad TV" as Curly are all stellar morons in the best sense possible. Jane Lynch, Jennifer Hudson and the cast of "Jersey Shore" are all terrific but for me, the movie is stolen by Larry David every time he appears on screen as Sister Mary-Mengele.

Yeah, I loved this, more than I should have, and more than I ever would have believed either. The only thing that brought it done was during the end credits when the Farrelly brothers appear on screen to show how stunts were done and to tell kids not to try this at home. It may have been done tongue in cheek, but it brought that original 1970s bad taste back into my mouth. Stupid parents groups. Leave the Stooges, any Stooges alone. Still, this newest edition of the Three Stooges is highly recommended, bring the kids, be prepared for a little potty humor, but mostly Stooges goodness.

Comic Book Men

AMC wanted to cash in on "The Walking Dead" so bad that I guess they accepted any show about comic books. Now don't get me wrong, I am a hardcore Kevin Smith fan, but "Comic Book Men" is, on many levels, a disappointment.

Unless Kevin Smith himself doesn't know what he wants this show to be, it seems to be suffering from a lot of outside, or possibly even inside interference. It's all over the place. Sometimes it wants to be a reality show, sometimes a bad imitation of "Hardcore Pawn" and other shows of its ilk, sometimes an extension of Smith himself, sometimes a podcast on video, and sometimes just an outright commercial for the Secret Stash store, Smith, and/or AMC. Could they really get any more Smith or Walking Dead merch in the camera frames?

Having frequented comic book shops all my life, I can tell you, that except for the guy who doesn't work there and never leaves, this is sooo not like a comic book shop. They did however have to clean up the Secret Stash, which was a relief. I've been there, they cleaned, believe me. The occasion of folks coming in wanting sell stuff doesn't happen all that often, neither do hockey games, or sadly women in the shops. And of course that's the other thing that bugs me about it, the supposedly unscripted employees are more than a little sexist - perhaps they should be scripted.

Maybe they could focus on the buying comics from customers concept, or the roundtable podcast concept, or just make it Kevin Smith-centric - I really enjoyed the Jason Mewes/Batmobile episode. Maybe it could be cut down to a half-hour, but it must focus, and pick a direction. Sadly the one thing I enjoy about visiting a comics shop, talking comics, has only been featured once, and they mocked it. To me that's what the show should be about, sans ridicule. If you're fanboys (and girls), embrace it!

Right now, we're three episodes into a six-episode run. I hope it gets better, and finds its center. It would be nice to have a geek home on television, especially smack between "The Walking Dead" and "Talking Dead."

Jeff Conaway 1950-2011

Actor Jeff Conaway passed away today after doctors took him off of life support. The actor was in a medically-induced coma after suffering from an overdose of painkillers. This was after a long battle with drug abuse, much of which occurred in front of the world via reality television, as Dr. Drew tried to help Conaway on several of his rehab TV series. It seems a shame both that he had not only this problem, but also that a whole generation probably only knows him as that wrecked old drug addict on TV.

Jeff Conaway had a long career before crashing and burning, he was on television and film, and was prolific with both. He played Kenickie in Grease, and was a member of the long-running ensemble sitcom "Taxi," until eventually being fired for drug use, a specter that haunted him even then. I remember also in Disney's Pete's Dragon and even though I never watched it, I know he was also a regular on "Babylon 5."

What I remember Jeff Conaway most for, and while this marks me for not being with the Grease or "Taxi" or even rehab crowds, it cements my nerd cred. I remember him in "Wizards and Warriors." This high adventure/subtle comedy TV series, mostly directed by Bill Bixby, was CBS' way of cashing in on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy demographic. It soon became evident that those folks didn't watch prime time TV, or at least that show, and it was canceled after just a handful of episodes. I still dug Conaway as the square-jawed hero. playing it straight and standing above. Would love to see that on DVD someday.

No matter how you remember Jeff Conaway, he will be missed, and remembered.

Quickies 9-15-2010

Drag Me To Hell ~ A young loan officer arbitrarily refuses to extend an old gypsy woman's mortgage and is cursed, hilarity ensues, as they say. As the lamia, a goat-like demon from Hell, pursues the young woman, she tries desperately to break the curse. This is a fairly scary new entry from writer/director Sam Raimi finally getting back to his horror roots. Except for the casting of Justin Long and a couple painfully cartoony moments, this is an excellent scare-fest, worth seeing, but keep the lights on.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ~ The first filmed part of the Millenium Trilogy by the late Stieg Larsson is much more streamlined and exciting than its literary counterpart, no slow or dense parts like the book. Good mystery, good action, well cast with great soundtrack - recommended. It's so perfect, I am almost dreading the American version coming next year.

Nanny McPhee Returns ~ Also known as Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang overseas, this family film sequel, based on the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand, is a bit formulaic, but still a lot of fun.

Jennifer's Body ~ Taken as a black comedy, this one is actually rather good. It has a very Kevin Williamson tongue-in-cheek feel to it, but is actually written by the infamous Diablo Cody, who brings her own unique sensibility to it. Quirky and more real than a lot of horror of this kind, this was a lot better than I thought it would be. Check it out.

61* ~ I'm not a big baseball fan, and I'm even less of a Billy Crystal fan, so I was surprised I liked this baseball flick directed by Crystal. The HBO movie recounts the summer of 1961 as Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle both strive to break Babe Ruth's single season home run record. Thomas Jane is terrific as Mantle. Recommended.

Komodo Vs. Cobra ~ This low budget SyFy special features bad writing, bad CGI effects and bad acting that would make porn actors blush. It stars, along with badly realized giant reptiles, Michael Pare from the decades ago Eddie and the Cruisers and reality TV star Jerry Manthey from "Survivor" who seems to want to prove she's a better actress without a script. Miss this one.