Woe to Wo Fat

I've followed this season often on either Me-TV in Chicago or their sister station Me-Too. They offer many classic series and if possible I try not to miss Hawaii Five-0. Better yet I watch this program on video on demand services such as Fancast. The best dramatic police series I've ever seen and it makes me say that they don't make good TV like they used to. I was too young to even know this program even existed.

Watching this clip there probably are those who can't tell that that show was once a great program. Even the best series loses some quality at some point. That moment might start with, whenever the show "jumps the shark".

Of course what causes a TV program to "jump the shark" is subjective at best. I can't tell you when this program jumped the shark. Perhaps it was when many of the important characters of the show left. Perhaps when Chin was murdered or the departure of Danny Williams. At some point the quality will go to despite good efforts to bring back quality.

That being said, I know this scene is from the very last episode of Five-0. I heard some not so very flattering things about the fight scene. Jack Lord and Khiegh Dhiegh were showing their age in playing their respective roles of Steve McGarret and Wo Fat. For some that might ruin this fight scene. Some will even say that there shouldn't even be a fight scene between these two characters as their on-screen antagonism is often more mental than physical.

What was very comical about the last minutes of Five-0 as a running TV program was watching Wo Fat in a cell in a classic striped prison suit. That just made the ending of this show silly. Was such outfits even in use by 1980 and Wo Fat isn't exactly in prison yet just booked and sent to jail with his day in court coming.

Perhaps if the program ended a few years earlier, there could have been a much better series finale. Maybe we would know where Danny would go, perhaps Chin could have been offed in a very dramatic fashion. At that point the fourth member of the team was Duke who knows what the future would have in store for him. Perhaps the Governor announces his retirement. Just a few ideas.

There are often rumors that the series could be revived, even a feature film. I just hope that who even develops either project won't insult some of the good work made by the creators and crew of this great TV police series.

Hawaii Five-0 Home Page

Star Trek Music Re-recorded

I did it for the Doctor Who theme although that video is no longer available. Check out another rendition of a classic theme.

The Flash TV series intro

There are a couple of other superhero movies coming out with Incredible Hulk and Batman with movies coming out. There was also Iron Man within the last two months. And this vid that I've posted here well there isn't likely a movie featuring him coming out anytime soon.

In the early 1990s there as a TV series based on the DC Comics character The Flash. I could tell it aired on CBS, it seems like that type of show. I'm sure you'll love the theme music and the action packed intro. It's too bad the program didn't last but a single season. If there is ever a movie for this character that they should use the theme composed by Danny Elfman.

The Wire

I have recently gotten into that former HBO series that recently ended its run this past March. The last time I ever viewed an episode of the series had to been almost five years ago. Most of the first season and some of the second.

At first the program was basically a look at the police investigating a drug dealing organization. The recent episodes airing currently on BET on Tuesday and Saturday nights involving looking at the police, criminals, schools, and politics. An interesting mix for a program that I always thought of as a cop show.

This program only lets me know that cop shows need not be glamorous. Not that they always were it's just that none have been as gritty as this program set in Baltimore, Maryland. The last few episode that I saw this past week, viewers saw detectives come to the realization that abandoned buildings in Baltimore were tombs to countless bodies laid out by a drug-dealing organization, the Stanfield Organization.

Also we see various young men in the educational system. Some drop out of school and become criminals and some are able to escape and may prove to have a future. One outright becomes a contract killer, another becomes a drug addict. There's this little boy, I can't imagine him being older that 10 years old out there in the streets already using a foul mouth and perhaps even dealing. Also the subject of a severe beating by the future contract killer.

I should also add, there was another kid. Apparently he's a snitch and snitching is bad to some people, he gets beaten by some other boys in his group home where he was placed. Unfortunately he's only there because the state had put rules into place where he's forced to live in a group home while they figure out where else they can place him. This is after his foster mother was killed when some thugs firebombed their home even though the home was under police surveillance.

This show is raw, and my only regret was this I didn't see this show develop properly. Oh now I remember what the second season involved, an investigation of a union working some docks in a harbor. So in that season there were three angles the police, criminals, and organized labor.

I think BET finally finished off season 4 perhaps I can finally watch the final season. The new twist in that season in the press. Let's see how that plays out!

The Wire from Wikipedia

How 'Dallas' Won the Cold War

I barely remember this series and I became a fan much later on when this show aired on the network now called SpikeTV when they used to be TNN (The Nashville Network). Anyway apparently this show played a role in beating back Communism in the 1980s...

Let us now pause in somber tribute to the 30th anniversary of a momentous -- and shockingly unremembered -- turning point in the long twilight struggle between communism and capitalism. An event every bit as important as the Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate, Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down this Wall" speech and Yakov Smirnoff's defection to the West.

We write, of course, about the debut of "Dallas," the 13-year soap opera that shook the world.

Yes, April 1978 was the first time our nation turned its lonely eyes to Southfork Ranch, the winningly diabolical genius of J.R. Ewing (as played by Larry Hagman) and Victoria Principal's high-waisted pantsuits. It was the booze-and-sex-soaked caricature of free enterprise and executive lifestyles that proved irresistible not just to stagflation-weary Americans but viewers from France to the Soviet Union to Ceausescu's Romania.

"Dallas" wasn't simply a television show. It was an atmosphere-altering cultural force. Lasting nearly as long as recovering alcoholic Larry Hagman's second liver, it helped define the 1980s as a glorious "decade of greed," ushering in an era in which capitalism became cool, even though weighted with manifold moral quandaries. Beginning with the famous "Who Shot J.R.?" cliffhanger at the end of Season Two, "Dallas" was either the highest or second-highest rated show in the United States for a half-decade, showing up in Abba songs and Ozzy Osbourne videos, spinning off the mega-hit "Knots Landing" and inspiring such book-length academic analysis as French academic Florence Dupont's "Homère et 'Dallas': Introduction à une Critique Anthropologique."

After a long hip parade of unironic countercultural icons such as Luke of "Cool Hand Luke" and Randle Patrick McMurphy of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Dallas" created a new archetype of the anti-hero we loved to hate and hated to love: an establishment tycoon who's always controlling politicians, cheating on his boozy wife and scheming against his own stubbornly loyal family. But no matter how evil various translators tried to make J.R. and his milieu ("Dallas, you merciless universe!" ran the French lyrics added to the wordless theme song), viewers in the nearly 100 countries that gobbled up the show, including in the Warsaw Pact nations, came to believe that they, too, deserved cars as big as boats and a swimming pool the size of a small mansion.

Read the whole thing! Via Instapundit.

Jon Pertwee - Kung Fu Fighting!

Clips of Jon Pertwee engaging in some fight scene during his time as Doctor Who with background music from a classic 1970s songs. It's both hilarious and exhilarating.

More than Just a Timelord

A tribute video to the seventh doctor played by Sylvester McCoy. Having seen a few of the seventh doctor episodes of Doctor Who, I'll just have to admit most of these episodes aren't that bad. It was just unfortunate that they couldn't eke out another season of Doctor Who for McCoy beyond 1989 and we would see the seventh doctor briefly at the beginning of the 1996 FOX TV movie called appropriately enough Doctor Who.

Star Trek:Enterprise Intro

Personally I love this show, although many Star Trek fans will lament how this series messed with continuity. There are certainly some things I didn't agree with but I thought this was a worthwhile experiment. I was disappointed when after 4 seasons this series was cancelled.

While this post was titled Star Trek: Enterprise, I still refer to this series as simply Enterprise. Enterprise was this series' original title until the third season when Star Trek was added to it. Now I want to just go out and find a DVD set since the series isn't even running in syndication anymore these days!

Oh and this intro is an intro I liked better than the one used during the first two seasons. The tempo if much faster than the slower pace of the tune of the first two seasons. It feels a lot more optimistic than it did in the first two seasons. Almost as if the crew of the starship Enterprise is a lot more confident about their mission!

Doctor Who - The War Games - final scene

The Doctor is finally caught by the Time Lords. He and his companions Jamie and Zoe attempt to make a final escape before they are stopped by the Time Lords. Jamie and Zoe are sent back to their respective time periods with their only memories of the Doctor being their first adventures with him.

The Doctor of course has to meet his punishment. His intereference during his adventures in time and space has the Time Lords changing his appearance, being exiled to Earth, and the secrets of his Tardis taken from him. This is how we left the character most would refer to as the Second Doctor.

Enjoy!

Star Trek TNG Intro

This is the intro to the very first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It started airing 20 years ago and by the time I knew this program even existed I was already halfway thru its very fifth season. As a result almost everyday from Monday thru Saturday my TV was tuned to WPWR Channel 50 at 6PM for old episodes during the week and a more current first run episode at 6PM on Saturdays with a rerun of the episode or previous episode at 10:30PM Sundays.

After that episode aired I could also get a taste of the original Star Trek that would air directly after TNG on Sunday night. Over time I grew to love the origianl Star Trek more than TNG, but if it wasn't for TNG I wouldn't have likely gotten into Star Trek.

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors

Starring Peter Davidson, Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, and Richard Hurndall as the Doctor. Tom Baker and William Hartnell made cameo appearances in the form of images on stock footage. Tom Baker didn't make it because he didn't want to, and William Hartnell passed away in 1975. That's why Richard Hurndall played the "first Doctor". Then we get to see some of the past companions of the Five Doctors as well. Enjoy the first segment.

The Great Bird of the Galaxy on "To Tell the Truth"

Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek appears on the 1970s game show To Tell the Truth. What a throwback!

Doctor Who - Time Crash - Children In Need 2007

The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) have an adventure in this special episode of Doctor Who. Apparently this aired November 16th.

A pair of items

I finally figured out why TV-Links went down but here's a link that might tell you of any replacements there might be out there for that website.

Also I've added a new link to the side bar to an online museum for Chicago TV called FuzzyMemories.tv. I will also provide FuzzyMemories two YouTube channels.

FuzzyMemoriesTV - The Museum of Classic Chicago Television
fuzzymemories - [classic Chicago TV]

I have also added another longtime favorite of mine the 80s TV Theme Supersite. It features audio and video that you might find from the 1980s.

Playing Doctor Who theme

Sometimes I wish I had learned to play music so I can do about what this man does. Play his version of the Doctor Who theme on his keyboard. I'll let him describe how he does it...

A quick video of me playing the Doctor Who theme. Bottom left is the bassline, and top right is the melody.

Doctor Who Theme-BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Know anything about me and know that I'm a big fan of film scores. If you find my music collection it will be dominated by film and TV soundtracks from some of my favorite movies and TV programs.

I share one with you. The BBC's orchestra gives its rendition of the Doctor Who theme. Totally brass, percussion and strings. No electronic, synthesized music and it should stir up the adventure in you. Enjoy!

Hmm, I wish that in the next Star Trek movie someone can give such a rendition of the original Star Trek theme by Alexander Courage. Can't wait!

I really miss this show

THis was a show that I would look forward to watching weekday afternoons after I get home from school at the then magical time of 2:30 in the afternoon. I look at those days fondly especially since I'm not of that age anymore. Still these were good shows that I and many other youngsters watched. I wonder if there are DVD collections of this show.

This show being The Animaniacs and this was one of their many segments referred to as Good Idea, Bad Idea and they were usually very funny.

I'm watching Batman on MeTV right now...

I've always thought this 1960s era Batman was the standard. When Batman came out in the movies theaters in 1989 thru 1995 and even with the animated series of the early 90s that aired on FOX Kids, I've always thought the 60s Batman was the standard. I don't remember when my standards changed.

I was more riveted by the animated Batman and Iwould later go see Batman Forever in 1995. I decided to get the three Batman movies already out on video. I even got to purchase from Best Buy, the animated Batman's feature film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. These were some great movies.

Hmm I should pull them out one day. I've already seen Batman Begins once too many times since I got that movie on DVD.

As for the 1960s Batman, well, I was watching them in the era when the darker and much less camp Batman was the style. I could still watch Adam West and Burt Ward on the FX network in the 1990s. These days I can settle for watching them every weekend on Channel 23 in Chicago.

I forgot to review the Doctor Who TV movie

Let me start this post off this way. I don't know when I first discovered this show. I don't know what possessed me to find episodes on YouTube last year.

Whatever happened, I'm glad I did and I've been hooked ever since. And this Doctor Who TV movie was among maybe some of the first episodes I saw at YouTube too. It was pretty good but I was sad that I missed it when it first aired.

In 1996, that was when this movie aired on FOX, I was solidly a Star Trek fan. There were other sci-fi series I was fond of such as Babylon 5, Space: Above & Beyond (which was cancelled in 1996), Sliders, Seaquest DSV and others that I can't recall but they were around in those days.

It gives me a sense of nostalgia to not just consider what I've seen, but what I've missed. There are a lot of things I have nostalgia for, especially places I've been or wanted to go. Things that I used to see on TV or listened to on the radio. Now I have a cerain nostalgia for Doctor Who.

This TV movie was supposed to jump start a new Doctor Who TV series. It didn't happen, ratings didn't justify it, if I read correctly. If I had hoped there would be a series I would have watched, but then that would have been assuming I was a fan in the first place. At that time I couldn't say that I was a fan.

I was a fan of the aformentioned Space: Above and Beyond. Missing a few episodes between the first episode and the last, I really loved that series. Despite my viewership and of others, the show found itself cancelled after a full season.

I knew Doctor Who existed just as I knew Star Trek existed and I had to rediscover both. The internet helped me rediscover Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation helped me to rediscover the original Star Trek. What I did know though was that Star Trek used to be rerun on Channel 32 (WFLD-Chicago) at one point while one could see Doctor Who episodes on Channel 11 (WTTW-Chicago). And when these shows aired I couldn't say I was at the age where I could understand what was going on.

Anyway, I've meandered long enough. I've seen enough old episodes of Doctor Who to notice that the production values in the movie was doubled what I imagine many fans were used to. Which was great for a possible revival that finally happened in 2005.

In addition Paul McGann was a very loud and emotional Doctor. It was certainly fun watching him and like today's Doctors I can't imagine any of the old ones engaged in the action that McGann was. Even better though was the regeneration, Sylvester McCoy played the seventh doctor and it was safe to say that he went out the way I would have expected him too (that is to say, he went out in an eccentric fashion). Sad to see him go because I enjoyed Sylvester McCoy's portrayal of the Doctor.

We see the seventh Doctor become the eighth Doctor. Start kissing the woman who had unintentionally caused the death of his seventh incarnation. Engage in toying with history by giving people advice. Offering people jelly babies while at the same time engaging in a sleight of hand to take away a policeman's firearm.

And Eric Roberts as the Doctor's archenemy the Master was a very dark and scary portrayal. Somewhat playful but there was no doubt that the Master was evil. When you think about it though his portrayal at times seemed more like a comic book movie than I would have liked.

Anyway get this on DVD when you get the chance. You don't want to spend money then find it on YouTube. Maybe we might see the movie on TVLinks one day. They've started adding old Doctor Who episodes recently.

Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) - Part 1

Here I go with another Doctor Who post. This is the start of the Doctor Who movie that aired on the FOX network in May of 1996. A sign of things to come before Doctor Who returns as a TV series almost a decade later. Or at least I look at it that way.