A few collected items from lunchtime reading. Departments include “@#*$$!% Television”, “Smurf Field”, and “That Time of Year”.
- From the “@#*$$!% Television” Department: On television tonight we have an interesting train-wreck: “$#*! My Dad Says”. The reviews have been decidedly lukewarm, although more entertaining than the show itself. From the LA Times:
One thing connects the protagonists of the comedies “$#*! My Dad Says” and “Outsourced,” premiering Thursday on CBS and NBC, respectively: They owe money on student loans, which limits their life choices to moving in with Dad, in the first instance, and moving to India, in the second. Otherwise, these series are as different as tomatoes and ketchup, with the distinction that both tomatoes and ketchup are good, but one of these shows is not.
This review also has the line: “William Shatner, who has most always played comedy whether or not he was playing in a comedy…”. USA Today states “Not a single thing William Shatner’s Dad has said in those ubiquitous CBS ads has been even remotely funny, a trend that continues in tonight’s premiere.” As for the NY Times, it opines “…a wholly generic sitcom so divorced from its source material that you have to pinch yourself to remember it had anything to do with the Internet, or with the world after 1985. It might as well have been based on a greeting card.” However, the show has had one interesting side-effect: it has created a problem for DVR manufacturers, who can’t program the characters in the title into the search function. Perhaps this is yet another reason for the show to die. My prediction: Come mid-season, we’ll see “Rules of Engagement” gone, and “Big Bang Theory” returned to the 830p Monday slot. It is unclear yet whether “Survivor” will return to Thursday.
- From the “Smurf Field” Department: The LA Times has an interesting story on Boise State, and its blue astroturf football field. Yes, I said “blue”. A one-time BSU athletic director thought that, for $750,000, the school was “going to take out a green field and put in another green field”. The school’s colors were orange and blue, and an orange field was out, so…. Competitors have gone so far buy 440 gallons of paint to color one of their practice fields blue.
- From the “That Time of Year” Department: For all the discussions about the abnormally hot weather this summer in the East, it was the coldest summer in decades in Southern California. Personally, I think there were only two weeks all summer with 100+ days, and perhaps one additional week with 90+ days. This is unusual: we normally have entire months that are over 100° (but out here, it’s a dry heat… literally… we normally run 10%-15% humidity). Of course, now that it is Autumn, it looks like we’ll hit over 100° this weekend.
