This Week in DVD

Changeling: For a movie directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie, this sure seemed to come and go without much fuss. So the sober period piece died a quiet death, while the movie Eastwood starred in as a grumpy old racist ("Gran Torino") was a big hit. There's a lesson in here somewhere. Maybe the lesson is that "Changeling" bites.

Body of Lies: Is this a Ridley Scott political thriller or a biopic of Pamela Anderson? HEY-YOOOO!

See, she had a lot of surgery, and--ah, never mind. It would be funnier if you could see me say it with my hands in my pockets and rocking back slightly on my heels.

Anyway, this one flopped despite Leo and Russell and gave more fodder to those who say audiences don't want to see "serious" movies with political overtones, especially those that deal with the Middle East.

Beverly Hillbillies Season 3 and Murder She Wrote Season 9: I don't watch either of those, but so what? Paramount seems finally committed to issuing one of its most popular classic sitcoms, and as for "Murder," well, I'm impressed anytime a company gets around to issuing a ninth season of anything. After my rant yesterday, I want to present some good TV on DVD news.

Flash of Genius: Greg Kinnear plays the guy who invented intermittent windshield wipers, then saw Ford rip him off. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Believe it or not, this didn't premiere on TNT, but in real, live thee-ay-ters.

Every silver lining has a dark cloud: MPI and Paramount DVD news

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear analyzes two recent TV-on-DVD announcements from MPI. One was rumored for a while: a release of "Here's Lucy." News of a set for "The Mothers-in-Law" is a real surprise, though. I've always been curious about that show, so I look forward to checking it out.

It's nice to see MPI staying in the game as far as classic TV releases, particularly so when it's a lesser-known series. And while I've never been a big Lucille Ball fan, much less a fan of her shows without Desi and Bill Frawley, she's arguably the biggest icon in the medium's history, and I think all of her work should be on DVD.

And I don't like to be one of those people that pooh-poohs the release announcement of a certain show by complaining about the omission of something else. I know that just because a company proceeds with one project isn't proof that it's abandoning or neglecting another.

Furthermore, I don't wish to rain on the parade of any Lucy fans who are justifiably excited about this news.

(If by now you sense the looming presence of an Aretha-Franklin-size big BUT, you're right on track.)

BUT I can't help but feel disappointed. I've been waiting for a different kind of announcement from MPI: Verification that they're gonna redo the "Honeymooners Lost Episodes." Yes, most of them are out on disc now, but they're in clunky, artless box sets, and more importantly, there are errors and omissions in those early MPI sets that should be corrected in a future reboot. I think it was a few years ago when I first saw chatter MPI might do this. Perhaps the plan is to wait till "The Color Honeymooners" are finished, but though I'm glad to see that project continue, there is a lot more Jackie Gleason I'd rather see.

These two announcements in and of themselves certainly don't preclude any future news about the 'Mooners, but I wonder if resources are being shifted there at the expense of any Gleason stuff. I know, I know, that's kind of a selfish attitude, but, hey, given all the talk of cutbacks and limited shelf space and all the other excuses that could slow the classic TV on DVD schedule, I do worry. Similarly, folks who enjoy the older shows Shout Factory is delivering have reason to be nervous that the relatively small label is bringing out a slew of more recent titles like "Mr. Belvedere" and "Designing Women."

In other dark cloud news, TV Shows on DVD also announced yesterday that Paramount is offering replacement discs via mail for it's notorious "The Fugitive" Season 2 Volume 1 set. The original release, of course, featured the replacement score that irritated many fans of the show...as well as people who just don't like seeing classic TV shows butchered.

This is an extraordinary step, and it appears that Paramount is doing the right thing. Gord Lacey of TV Shows on DVD says "much of the original music" is restored but implies the score is intact and the replacements are more like the incidental ones that occur in other Paramount sets, like songs on jukeboxes in the background. The process for getting the replacement DVDs appears to be pretty easy. Supposedly, Season 2 Volume 2 will have the original scoring intact.

But why should we do cartwheels just yet? I went to Home Theater Forum yesterday to look at some reaction to the news, and when one poster dared to express a reservation, Lacey responded with a snide post that indicated how thankful we should be Paramount is doing this.

Let's keep some perspective, though. The discs aren't available at retail, meaning someone who wants the set in its "correct" form has to go buy a crappy set and THEN go through the mail process. The sets are still expensive and in ridiculous split-season format, and I won't be surprised if "the cost of clearing this music" makes future sets MORE expensive. Furthermore, as far as I know, Paramount is still hacking up "My Three Sons."

So, yeah, I'm glad Paramount seems to be fixing a problem here, but I reserve the right to wait and see. This company lost the benefit of the doubt with the way it handled the issue in the first place. I haven't been back to the Home Theater Forum today--I suspect by now the thread could be 10 pages long--so maybe some of these issues have been addressed. But I'm not as ready as Mr. Lacey to embrace Paramount despite this pleasant surprise.

True Confessions: He's a Rebel

I feel like a real rebel today, folks. Want to know why?

Well, I'll tell you, but keep your voices down, will you? And don't repeat a word of this, mind you.

I rented a copy of Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" and watched it.

Yep, I sure did. I did this even though, since it's a Weinstein Company disc and that company has some kind of deal with Blockbuster, there is a big imposing message before the movie proclaiming...

THIS DVD IS FOR SALE ONLY.

It wasn't sold to me, and I didn't buy it. But I watched it, anyway! And I was able to watch it because I rented it!

Don't worry. I've taken precautions to make a quick escape in the event of an assault by the Feds on the sprawling Cultureshark Compound. I'll continue to post this week even though I may have to hole up in my underground communications center for a while.

Half-Assed Gourmet: Another Saturday night and I ain't got no dinner...

OK, so maybe my wife and I were asking for a hassle by attempting to go out for dinner on a Valentine's Day that fell on a Saturday. But we gave it a shot, anyway. It all turned out well, but not before a little misadventure at Bonefish Grill.

We had a relative drop by, which kept us from leaving as early as we planned, but we figured we'd call ahead and do some recon. So at about 4:00, my wife called Sweetwater Tavern and were told the wait was two hours plus. Thus endeth our plan to go there.

Then she called the hastily-chosen backup choice, Bonefish, which doesn't get crowded so early, and asked, "Could you tell us what the wait is?"

The answer: "About an hour."

My wife, rather surprised, said, "An hour? Really?"

And then the woman at Bonefish says, "Oh, you mean right now? There's no wait."

???

Mind you, Mrs. Shark hadn't asked, "What's the median wait at your establishment?" Nor did she say, "I'd like to know what the wait will be like when we get there at about 5:00 or 6:00." She asked what the wait was. She thought the "now" part was kind of implied.

So our family member stopped by a few minutes later, and we thought he was gonna go to dinner with us, but he declined. So we called the restaurant again at about 4:30 and asked what the wait was. "20-25 minutes," we were told. Well, that was a big step up from nothing, but still tolerable. So we bundled up the little one, got ourselves together, and made the 5-minute drive.

The parking lot was packed, so I popped in to ask, you guessed it, what the wait was. The hostess (I don't know if she was the one on the phone) asked, "Do you have reservations?" When I responded with a quick no, I heard, "Well, then it's gonna be at least two hours."

???

A lot had changed since we last called...10 minutes earlier, to say nothing of the first call less than an hour before, when there was no wait, nor any indication that there would BE a two-hour wait later. But after thinking it over, I realized the misunderstanding was probably all ours. After all, when we called the second time and were told the wait was 20-25 minutes, the woman clearly didn't mean that was the wait NOW; she meant that was the wait at 7:00 the night before. DUH!
(The Brooks family soldiered on, only to find Carraba's had "at least" a two-hour wait." So then we went to Austin Grill, or what I call "Fallback Grill" because it's overpriced for what it is but is the only restaurant nearby that doesn't have an insane wait on a weekend evening. We had a nice dinner and a good time, and so the story ended happily. My sense of time, however, was crippled.)

On the Radio: Genesis--but only certain Genesis

I like to check in with Baltimore's 102.7 JACK-FM every now and then because it purports to play "everything." That's not so, of course, but it does offer a lot of variety and a lot of pop songs I don't hear anywhere else.

This past week, though, the variety hasn't been as varied. For some reason, I am hearing a LOT of Genesis on there lately. The strange thing is, it's only Genesis from a certain time frame. I'm talking post-Peter-Gabriel but pre-Invisible-Touch here. I heard 3 or 4 different songs from this era last week.

How did this happen? Did some new program director come in and say, "Hey, you know what we need more of on here? GENESIS"?

Then perhaps someone responded, "Oh, yeah, we can put 'Throwing It All Away' back in the rotation, maybe 'No Son of Mine'..."

Only she was met with a curt dismissal by the P.D.: "No way, we're not playing that crap. That was their sellout period."

"Oh, so you want some of the old Peter Gabriel stuff, or maybe Steve Hackett? I don't know they had a lot of radio hits, but we can do 'Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' or--"

"NO! Damn it, none of that stuff. As far as this station is concerned, the genesis of Genesis was ABACAB! And don't try slipping in any 'Invisible Touch' stuff, because I know that album beginning to end. We don't need to play that anymore!"

Because, see, that's the weird thing: I didn't even hear the two arguably most enduring hits from that post-Gabriel, post-Hackett, pre-beer commercials era: "Misunderstanding" and "Turn It On Again." Those are on the "Duke," album which was the predecessor of "Abacab," so this window is even narrower when you really think about it.

Then again, it's quite possible I'm the only one thinking about it.

Exclusive shows on Direct TV

After a few weeks of experiencing Direct TV while vacationing at my folks' place, I am more convinced than ever that I'm happy with regular old FIOS. It seems to me that if you don't want the NFL Sunday Ticket package--and I don't simply because it costs wayyyy too much--there's not a lot out I don't already get.

Actually, let me correct that: I think there are a whole lot of channels on satellite that I don't get now. Unfortunately, they're all shopping channels, and they're so prevalent in the lineup that it's tough to avoid them.

I am somewhat intrigued, though, by Direct TV's foray into original programming with its "The 101" channel, which can be found on channel 422. HA! No, it's on 101, of course, and while offerings like "Friday Night Lights," the current season of which debuted here before its run on NBC, get all the press, there are 101 exclusives on there that, though not gamechangers that are gonna make anyone switch TV providers, are entertaining time fillers.

"Rock and a Hard Place" is a music and pop culture trivia game show pitting "some of the hottest performers of the past," as per the channel's website, against each other. I saw the Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam vs. Da Brat episode, but now that I look at that list of episodes, I'm really bummed about missing Everclear vs. Starship.

The premise is simple, but there are some amusing twists to the questions and challenges. One round in the episode I saw featured contestants playing pop songs on a kazoo for their bandmates to identify. Meat Loaf is a surprisingly adept host, keeping up with the show's extremely fast pace and providing an engaging personality and some humor here and there.

Another 101 original is "Supreme Court of Comedy," in which two comedians argue a small-claims type case before "the honorable" Judge Dom Irrera. It is reminiscent of Lewis Black's "Root of All Evil" on Comedy Central, except much, much funnier. The gimmick of deciding simple disputes with comedians as representation works better than having the funnymen debate more abstract concepts like whether Paris Hilton is more evil than Donald Trump.

I saw Tom Arnold square off in court against Paul Mooney, and though each guy went to predictable places for his jokes, it was a lot more entertaining than I expected. Irrera is effective working the judge persona and gets off some good lines himself. It looks like the show is heavily edited to get down to a half-hour, and of course that has the effect of making all involved look sharper.

According to this, other episodes present courtroom match-ups such as Victoria Jackson vs. Rich Hall--Rich Hall!--and half the shows seem to have Arnold and/or Mooney. The lineup could maybe use a bit more starpower or at least diversity, but this cheapo half-hour is pretty funny, and if it were on Comedy Central, I'd give it at least a few more episodes.

These shows aren't strong enough on their own to make me even consider switching to satellite, but they are better than a lot of other costlier, more hyped productions on high-profile cable channels. It will be interesting to see if Direct TV makes any kind of waves with this kind of strategy. A few great shows here and there could turn some heads, but I don't know what kind of series would be enough to lure new customers. After all, it's a lot easier to tack on whatever bucks a month to your cable bill for HBO so you can get "The Sopranos" than it is to change your entire method of receiving TV signals.