Tag: Television
Become a contestant via the Who Wants to be a Millionaire phone game
From buzzerblog.flashgameshows.com:
TweetWant your shot at $1,000,000 on ABC’s 10th anniversary revival of Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Your chance has come. The phone line is now open. Call 1-800-999-7878 from July 6th to July 16th anywhere from 7:00PM ET to 3:00AM ET. When you call, you play five Fastest Finger questions. Answer them all correctly in about ten seconds and you are in the contestant poll and possibly randomly selected to sit in the Hot Seat. You can only call once a day so be prepared.
Don’t worry if you mess up, though. There’s still tons of time.
Feel free to post how you did each day. This will be brought to the top of the page every day until July 16th at 7:00PM ET. Good luck. I want to see one of you in the Hot Seat!
MONDAY MEDIA: Full Movies and TV Shows on YouTube
This might be old news to many of you but I just recently discovered the fact that I can relive parts of the ’80s and ’90s through the new existance of…
Full Movies and TV Shows on YouTube
In addition to the usual buttons found near the top of YouTube (Home, Videos, Channels, Community), there is now a “Shows” button that takes you to a listing of full TV shows and movies that are now legally available to watch in their entirety directly on the video sharing site.
In browsing through list of TV shows, the ones that stuck out as interesting to me are:
- Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (the cartoon)
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
- Dilbert
- Bewitched
- Alf
- The Tick (Unfortunately, only the live-action version)
While I’m not thrilled with the idea of watching a movie on my computer (regardless of if it’s on YouTube or anywhere else), I think classic TV shows definitely have a big future in the online world. Hulu really began the process by putting so many great shows online and now YouTube is following along.
YouTube has even taken a few pages from Hulu’s playbook including allowing TV and movie watchers on their site to “turn down the lights,” making most of the page turn dark to provide a better video-watching environment. The shows and films can also be displayed in a larger in-browser size than standard YouTube videos (full screen is still available as well).
Unfortunately, unlike most YouTube videos, the TV shows and movies are not embeddable, so I can’t put any of them on this blog or anywhere else. Before each bit of media, a short advertisement is also played, but that’s easily ignored.
Overall, I like the trend of adding classic television to online video sites. I’ve been buying old TV shows on DVD for several years and would be happy to have access to it all on the Web for free, especially if someone can figure out a way to let me watch them on an actual TV.
TweetABC to Air Final Episodes of Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money
From thedisneyblog.com:
TweetFans of canceled shows “Pushing Daisies,” “Eli Stone” and “Dirty Sexy Money” get ready to set your DVRs. Disney/ABC has announced the finale air dates to burn off the remaining episodes of those shows.
“Pushing Daisies” returning to the schedule as of Saturday, May 30 through Saturday, June 13 at 10:00 p.m.
“Eli Stone” on Saturday, June 20 through Saturday, July 11 at 10:00 p.m.
“Dirty Sexy Money” on Saturday, July 18 through August 8 at 10:00 p.m.
WEDNESDAY WHINE: Television Previews Reveal Too Much – Part Two
This week’s whine has been bugging me for a long time. So long, in fact, that I have already whined about it once before. But this isn’t a rerun post. Instead, it’s an expansion on the fact that I am increasingly annoyed by…
Television Previews that Reveal Too Much
I can no longer escape them. As much as I try to avoid watching the “Next time on…” previews at the end of TV shows as to not spoil what plot lines or characters will show up in the next episode, they defy me, finding their way into my head when I least expect it.
I have two additional examples to add on top of my last post about this subject:
First, it appears that there now exists a trend for TV producers to think their audiences are so uninterested by what they’re watching that they need a summary of the entire episode within its first 30 seconds, revealing nearly everything that is about to happen, short of the actual ending.
This season, The Amazing Race has started adding “This week on The Amazing Race…” to the beginning of each episode, showing, in brief, many (or all) of the tasks, conflicts, and problems that are going to happen within the 60-minute show. I tune in to The Amazing Race to see great sights from around the world and to be surprised by what happens during the race. Take away that element of surprise and I’m left with just another travel show.
Similarly, on tonight’s Mythbusters season premiere (which I’m watching while typing this post), the first 30-60 seconds were devoted to showing nearly every crash and explosion that is going to happen over the next two hours. Kinda ruins the suspense.
Second, TV plot lines are now being spoiled not only on TV but also in print. I’m not referring to spoiler-filled Web sites, which are fairly easily avoided. Instead, Entertainment Weekly is including entirely too many details about what will happen in upcoming TV episodes. Worse yet, these details are included in the TV schedule section of the magazine. So if you’re simply trying to find out what’s coming on TV this week, you may inadvertently read something about your favorite show that you really didn’t want to know until you actually saw the episode. Very frustrating.
In general, I can understand needing to include enough exciting footage and plot elements in a movie trailer to make someone want to see a movie. But is it really necessary for an episodic TV show? Can’t an overall plot just be given rather than an episode-by-episode rundown? If you compare a television show season to a feature-length movie, isn’t revealing the plot of each individual episode similar to revealing what happens every 10 minutes in a film?
Attention TV producers: Enough with the spoiling previews. If your show is good enough to watch more than once, your audience will return. You don’t need to try to trick us into watching another episode by showing all of the best parts in advance. Thanks.
TweetFRIDAY FLASHBACK: The Most Memorable Candy Commercials of the 1980s (via Retroist)
This week’s Friday Flashback comes to us courtesy of Retroist.com…
The Most Memorable Candy Commercials of the 1980s
From Retroist:
The 1980s were a great time for child product marketing. The toy, cereal and candy commercials clogged the airwaves every day, filling our small brains with thoughts of plastic fun and sugar coated impulse buys. Many of these classic ads are indelibly burned into our brains. Here are a few of the most memorable candy commercials from the 1980s:
Big League Chew
I am not allowed to eat Big League Chew and when I say eat I mean eat. I am one of “THOSE” people who for some reason cannot chew this gum, but instead swallows it at the first opportunity. It was a problem that in my youth left my stomach swelled with gum and my family wide-eyed with disgust. Needless to say, I was expressly forbidden from buying the chew. Still, whenever I scoped the classic sports themed commercial I would try and sneak a pouch to bring to Little League with me. Of course I would finish on the walk to the park and be the most bloated 3rd baseman on the field.
Twizzlers
The magic Twizzler mouth still gives me nightmares. Sometimes when I try to sleep I can still see this gibbering hungry mouth searching for me in the darkness at the edge of my bed.
Bonkers
Bonkers were not quite gum and not quite taffy. They were sort of a variation on the Starburst with a little more chewiness and unlike the sunshine themed Starburst, Bonkers decided that the threat of death by crushing was a much more attractive marketing ploy. I am glad they did, because it made for some very memorable commercials.
Whatchamacallit
Tom and Bill just finished lunch and Bill pulls out a candy bar and starts snacking.
Tom -What you eating?
Bill -- Whatchamacallit.
Tom -But what’s the name of what you are eating?
Bill -- Whatchamacallit.
Tom -You don’t know the name?
Bill -- I told you the name.
Tom -You said Whatchamacallit.
Bill -- That’s right.
Tom plunges a fork into Bill’s brain, ending this battle of circular logic.
Holiday M&M’s
M&Ms know how to do the holidays up right. That is why even after all the other great holiday product tie-ins have fallen to the wayside, M&Ms continue to endure as a symbol of holiday frivolity. My X-mas is not complete without a heaping bowl of red and green peanut M&Ms.
Caramello
This makes a lot more sense when you grew up watching Peter Gabriel stop motion music videos.
And I have to personally add one more to the list:
California Raisins
Yes, raisins were heavily marketed as nature’s candy in the ’80s through a fun variety of little dancing purple guys… and it was quite successful. Well, I don’t know how much it actually made me want to eat raisins, but it did make me want to buy California Raisins figures, clothing, etc. And it definitely got that darn song stuck in the heads of every television-watcher across the United States.
Be sure to check out The Retroist every day for more great retro fun.
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