The TV Thread: Networks, cable, shows on DVD.

[RGMike]

Best. PBS. Pledge Month. Special. EVAH; "The Best of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in"!  Now on KRCB and KQED will be running it at 9:30.

OMG! the Farkle Family!

[RGMike]

DUUUUDE! Cheech & Chong guest-starring on The Simpsons Sunday!

[RGMike]

Julianne Moore to play Palin in HBO's docudrama about the 2008 election.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/09/julianne-moore-to-play-sarah-palin-in-hbos-game-change/

[RGMike]

DUUUUDE! Cheech & Chong guest-starring on The Simpsons Sunday!

Awesome episode that included part of "Basketball Jones" with trippy animated visuals!

[Gazoo]

Best. PBS. Pledge Month. Special. EVAH; "The Best of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in"!  Now on KRCB and KQED will be running it at 9:30.

OMG! the Farkle Family!

I actually wanted to dress as Ferd Berfle for Halloween once, but realized that no one would get it.

[RGMike]

As I've said before, when Tim Goodman reviews TV shows -- particularly when he overpraises stuff -- I disagree with him about 75% of the time. But when he writes about the TV business, he's the best in the, er, business. Case in point his piece today about the negotiations to bring Mad Men back for a 5th season:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/dont-blame-matthew-weiner-mad-172341

[RGMike]

I mentioned this on FB: The Simpsons are saluting Liz Taylor tonite by re-running the ep where she voiced Maggie's first word.

But at the same hour, our local KMPT (ch. 32) is showing the animated version of "Gulliver's Travels" from 1939 -- a staple of my childhood (it was on TV all the time back in the day) that hasn't been seen in decades.

[RGMike]

But at the same hour, our local KMPT (ch. 32) is showing the animated version of "Gulliver's Travels" from 1939 -- a staple of my childhood (it was on TV all the time back in the day) that hasn't been seen in decades.

Damn, I just turned this on and it's the usual KMPT shoddiness -- a print so old and faded of color it looks like it's in black & white! Shame because it's a piece of film history; only the 2nd full-length animated feature (after Disney's Snow White) and unlike the Disney stuff which is reissued endlessly, "GT" is forgotten.

[Wayback]

3-min clip of Schwarzenegger's new animated series
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw6J9OGSXpg

[RGMike]

Big news, end-of-an-era, yadda-yadda... ABC cancels All My Children and One Life To Live

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/04/14/abc-cancels-all-my-children/

[SFGuy]

If anyone has channel 38 in the Bay Area, they are now showing really old TV shows like Rockford Files, Adam 12, Dragnet, Emergency!, I Spy and on weekends Peter Gunn, It Takes a Thief.

[RGMike]

If anyone has channel 38 in the Bay Area, they are now showing really old TV shows like Rockford Files, Adam 12, Dragnet, Emergency!, I Spy and on weekends Peter Gunn, It Takes a Thief.

what did they used to be? All-Asian? Spanish?

[Lightnin' Rod]

This Sunday HBO premieres the highly anticipated new series, Game of Thrones.  For anyone with even a passing fondness for high fantasy, I would recommend you give it a try.  The novel (the first in the series) is one of the best of the genre I have ever had the pleasure of reading (three times -- mainly because GRR Martin isn't very quick about getting the next installments written and I need to refresh my memory.  Book five is slated to come out in July, five years after book four).

Here is Tim Goodman's glowing review (the most positive I've seen, which means Mike should beware):

http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/goodman/

Other reviews have mentioned that the early episodes are burdened with too much expository dialogue, which is probably likely.  But be patient.  It will all be worth it once it really gets going.

[RGMike]

Damn, I didn't even know this film was being made: a movie about the Loud family, of the infamous PBS "real-life" docu An American Family. Reality TV some 30 years before the term was invented. James Gandolfini plays the guy who filmed the show; Diane Lane is Mrs Loud.  Sat nite on HBO.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/cinema-verite-tv-review-179016

OOOPS: that's NEXT Sat nite (4/23)

[Tinka Cat]

Damn, I didn't even know this film was being made: a movie about the Loud family, of the infamous PBS "real-life" docu An American Family. Reality TV some 30 years before the term was invented. James Gandolfini plays the guy who filmed the show; Diane Lane is Mrs Loud.  Sat nite on HBO.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/cinema-verite-tv-review-179016

whenever I see "The Loud Family" in print I always think back to that SNL skit:



http://snltranscripts.jt.org/78/78floud.phtml