The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Remake (Mistake?)' Edition
Is CBS seriously taking on a remake? Hawaii 5-0 Remake?
Apparently so. According to the Hollywood Reporter,
CBS has the rights to the original show which aired from 1968 to 1980, and CSI: NY writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will be taking a stab at developing the show and writing the pilot.
And so it goes...
Are there any TV series that you'd like to see resurrected with a 'Remake'?
Reading the responses as they came in was too much fun, I'm tellin' ya.
I'm hopin' that you'll have as much as I did. So, let's get to it...
Adam in NoHo lamented...
Damn it, spent too long thinking about it again... (Last week's Poll, he means...)
Are there any TV series that you'd like to see resurrected with a 'Remake'?
No... The only one to make good on the idea of a remake was Ron Moore with 'Battlestar Galactica', and even he has a load of fresh ideas now.
I would like to see a new Star Trek series (one that JJ Abrams has nothing to do with), but that would be more continuation than remake.
So, no.
(Being the cool guy that I am, I wrote Adam and offered to post his response from last week... He replied...)
Cool, I'll take you up on that. (See? Cool... Yeah, that's me!)
Re: Roman Polanski-
Look, the guy drugged a 13 yr-old and had sex with her, repeatedly. That's pretty shitty. (I would say so)
If it wasn't for the repeatedly part, I'd say give him whatever he originally worked out before the judge got camera-struck.
Because Polanski did this over and over in the same night (not that 'the same night'-part really matters), he should be extradited for a new trial. Just start from scratch and try him for whatever that charge would be. Then let the chips fall where they may.
He may get off fairly lightly, considering the girl doesn't want to rehash this any more. He would still serve some jail time, but you know what?... he drugged some girl and has sex with her repeatedly against her wishes. Jail-time may end up showing him what that's like. (And he won't like it, I'm thinkin'...)
DRD emphatically said...
Yes!
In the present environment, both social and political, I would enjoy the 'digs' offered by The Smothers Brother's Comedy Hour! As their demise demonstrated, they were not intimidated by power! I realize with the views of current media owners this is a very long shot indeed! Nevertheless, it is a 'dose of salts' the system could use today!
Paul of Seattle replied...
Yeah, Gilligan's Island.... no, wait, they already did that with "Lost".
(Ummmm... Kinda...)
dj useo offers...
I would like to see a remake of The Monkees. It would be mighty interesting to see how they handle the casting & music. Is there a modern Don Kirschner?
sdd begins the whimsical replies with...
I'd like to see Ron Moore produce a new version of "My Mother the Car", where the car turns out to be the first Cyclon. It would make at least as much sense as the final episode of Battlestar Galactica.
Doug R. takes it to the 'X-rated' level...
I think the old series that needs to be remade is "My Mother the Car." In the remake Sarah Palin would be reincarnated as a gas guzzling Humvee. Her horn would beep, "You betcha, you betcha". While getting filled (many, many times) with gas in her rear filler, she would squeal "Drill baby, drill." She would also give motherly advice to Bristol to avoid condoms while she's getting banged six ways to Sunday by Wasilla Methheads in the backseat. I don't see a downside here, instant Teabagger must see!
(That would definitely NOT be prime-time fare, I'm thinkin'...)
MD clogged up my in-box with 16 separate replies (But, I didn't mind)...
Bonanza with an all lesbian cast...
(Rosie O'Donnell as 'Hoss', perhaps?)
Queen for a Day, exactly the way it was - look it up on YouTube...
Pee-wee's Playhouse starring Arnold Schwartzenegger... (Ack!)
Have Taser, Will Travel...
Sex and the City with an all midget cast...
(menage a munchkin?)
The Big Bang Theory in which they finally admit they're all gay...
Seinfeld with the same actors switching roles...
(Julia as Kramer would be a hoot)
Remake Mad Men in caveman days. Mad Cavemen.
(and it would be so easy that a... er, sorry...)
Remake Breaking Bad only make it about horseradish instead of speed. Breaking Wind.
Remake
Amos and Andy as Mexicans. Oh, wait, Cheech and Chong did that.
Remake The Sopranos with actual sopranos...
Remake ER in a medical marijuana clinic... (with Cheech and Chong?)
Remake Law & Order as our planetary overlords. Law & Order: Earth...
Remake Gunsmoke with Matt Dillon as Matt Dillon...
And then he got down to business...
Max Headroom. Seriously. Don't change a thing but expand upon the fact that Max Headroom is a piece of software loose in the network database. He's got to show up intrusively in the rest of the schedule, butting in throughout the day, commenting on shows, and serving as promos for the real show. Matt Frewer is still around. Amanda Pays is still around. Jeffrey Tambor is still around. Don't change a thing. Max Headroom. Seriously. Max Headroom.
(Seriously, I like it)
Baron Dave (who either watches too much tv, or not enough, he told me) wrote...
You'll notice that they've already updated "It Takes A Thief" into "White Collar". Other actual revivals have rarely worked, such as "The Bionic Woman". Sometimes, you just have to steal an idea, not resuscitate a concept that was specific to a time and place. Still, let's flip through the tv listings of the 60s and 70s. A whole slew of programs from that era are ripe for the re-imagining.
The Kurosawa film "High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku)" was freely adapted from Japan to the US and became "Hawaii Five-O". I watched it at the time, and enjoyed it, but few of the episodes were memorable. Wo Fat, the Chinese agent, had some good turns.
The show was hard-edged, with a feisty former military man in charge, and lots of native Hawaiians in the cast and a lot of pretty scenery. Many of today's shows have similar elements, notably CSI: NY. After fifty years, I don't mind them reviving the concept. Better than "CSI: Honolulu" or "Law and Order: Surfer's Paradise". If the writing is good, the show will fit in nicely with today's cop shows.
I have fond memories of "My Favorite Martian". It was dumb, and I knew that at the time, but it was amusing. If handled in a similar vein to "Mork and Mindy" or "Third Rock From The Sun", with a tinge of "The Man Who Fell To Earth", it could work. I may be the only one, but I wish they'd do "Thunderbirds" again. They'd have to play with the concept a bit, but using high-tech gadgetry to save people in dire straights could finally be done with digital sfx better than the models and marionettes of the Anderson studios.
Given that the Gulf Coast is destroyed and climate change is here, isn't it time for another "Flipper"?
With the right cast and production company, a revival of "Petticoat Junction" could be "Sex In The Country".
"The Man From U.N.C.L.E" would, I think, be the kind of spy show that worked. As originally planned by Ian Fleming, UNCLE was a super-secret international organization that used agents all over the world to combat nefarious activities. Now we have terrorism, international crises every half-hour and a much larger world.
I'd love to see a reboot of "
Mr. Ed". Okay, no I wouldn't. Time to stop. TTFN
"It's hard not to take tv seriously. It's spent so much more time raising us than you have." -- Bart to Homer, The Simpsons
bebo with some wisdom said...
hola--- old TV series are like old girl friends - better to be left alone.
(Amen, brother... But, there's this 'Beth' from 38 years ago... Well... no...)
Richard McD. stated...
No, most ran too long as it was.
~~~~~~~~~~~
My choice would be 'Get Smart' with Steve Carell as 'Maxwell Smart', Tiny Fey as 'Agent 99' and Kelsey Grammar as 'Chief'...
Then, perhaps... 'The Flying Nun' with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (although I'm somewhat conflicted as to which one should have Sally Field's gig)
So, there they all are... Hope you enjoyed them... I did... Thanks to all... Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
~~~~~~~~~~~
New Question
The 'Shut up and Pay up' Edition
Hillary Clinton struck a strong populist chord while wading into territory secretary of states rarely go last Thursday: Domestic policy... "The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues [like the U.S.] - whether it's individual, corporate or whatever the taxation forms are," ...
I think we can all agree that corporations are getting off easy, tax-wise, but what about 'rich' individuals? Two questions:
1.) What is your definition of 'rich' for an individual/family?
and
2.) What do you think their 'fair share' in taxes should be?
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Pain Caucus (nytimes.com)
Less than a year into a weak recovery from the worst slump since World War II, there is a dangerous urge to stop helping the jobless and start inflicting pain.
Bill Maher: "New Rule: Politicians Must Be Informed of Their Rights: 'Everything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You in a Google Search'" (huffingtonpost.com)
...of course, we all embellish our resumes a little. In college, I described my job of pot dealer as "regional sales associate for a large multi-national firm."
Froma Harrop: Ban the Burqa (creators.com)
Belgium has banned the burqa, the head-to-toe veil worn in parts of the Muslim world. French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants his country to follow suit. What's an open-minded person to think? The answer is, you have every right to regulate your world.
Julia Keller: "Looking for the light: New young adult novel set in civil rights era" (Chicago Tribune)
Book tours are grueling, but not without their moments of sweetness. And so it was that Margaret McMullan, author of a captivating new young adult novel, "Sources of Light" (Houghton Mifflin), recently found herself back in Mississippi, the setting for her illuminating story.
"Occupied City" by David Peace: A review by Evelyn Toynton
David Peace's first books, set in his native Yorkshire during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the notorious Yorkshire Ripper was at large, were fairly straightforward crime fiction, though of a distinctive and -- for Britain -- radically new kind.
Charles Dickens: The First Great Travel Writer? (worldhum.com)
Frank Bures digs into the legendary author's travel writing and finds some surprises.
Rosanna Greenstreet: "Q&A: Annie Mac" (guardian.co.uk)
'If I could edit my past I'd change the width of the jeans I wore when I was 18.'
Mark Ronson: This charming man (guardian.co.uk)
Mark Ronson, the best-connected man in pop, tells Elizabeth Day about working with his heroes and his dislike of "super-dumbed-down" music.
Alice Fisher: "Mumford & Sons: sound of the summer" (guardian.co.uk)
Catchy, country-inspired and wonderfully upbeat, Mumford & Sons are set to provide the soundtrack to this summer. Here, the four friends talk about accidental fame, pub gigs and the romance of the road.
Marion Jones: 'I'm a sucker for a challenge' (guardian.co.uk)
Can a 34-year-old disgraced track superstar get a second chance - as a basketball player? Marion Jones talks to Maggie Jones about drugs, prison and starting again.
MICHAEL ATKINSON: Plight of the Living Dead (inthesetimes.com)
The strange longevity of George A. Romero's zombies.
Richard Roeper: How did breezy, sexy series go so wrong? (suntimes.com)
The girlfriends flounce about as if they're starring in "Ali Baba Meets Abbott & Costello." All the while, Carrie and friends remain remarkably self-absorbed and emotionally stunted. How did a breezy, bold, insightful, sexy and funny TV series become so grotesque?
David Bruce: "Composition Project: Writing a Famous Plagiarist Report" (Lulu.com)
Free download at http://stores.lulu.com/bruceb. This free pdf download describes a composition assignment that I have used successfully during my years of teaching at Ohio University: writing a short research project on a famous plagiarist. Feel free to make as many copies as you want to for educational purposes.
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Comment
bp's latest plan
This page has detailed drawings of how the next plan is to work. what is the scary part is that once they lop off the bent piece of pipe that is presently restricting the flow, then they will have to withstand the full force of the pressurized oil emitting from the well.
Ever try screwing a nozzle onto a garden hose while it is flowing?
gary in pa
Thanks, Gary!
For fact-based updates, check out Monkeyfister's blog
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cool.
Director Quits 'Hobbit'
Guillermo del Toro
Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro said Monday that production delays have forced him to quit the planned film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," a two-part prequel to New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson's blockbuster trilogy "Lord of the Rings."
"In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life," del Toro told a "Lord of the Rings" fan website.
"After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures," he said, noting the film still hadn't been given the green light by MGM, the struggling Hollywood studio.
Matt Dravitzki, a spokesman for "Hobbit" producer and "Lord Of The Rings" director Jackson, said del Toro would not be speaking to reporters Monday.
Guillermo del Toro
Tells Australia 'Let Cat Stevens In'
Salman Rushdie
Acclaimed British author Salman Rushdie said Monday that the death sentence imposed on him by Iran's late leader no longer affects his daily life, but the issue still hasn't gone away.
The latest surfacing of the issue came over a call from an Australian member of Parliament to bar the entry of popular musician Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, who is on a come-back tour.
Islam endorsed the fatwa, which was issued by Ayatollah Khomeni for Rushdie's 1988 novel, "The Satanic Verses," a book many Muslims considered blasphemous.
Rushdie said Australia should allow the musician's entry, but was adamant that Islam had spoken "extremely unpleasantly" and "outspokenly" in favour of the death decree that forced the author to go into hiding for many years.
Salman Rushdie
Copyrights A Lucrative Business
Ray Charles
Ray Charles is a music publisher's dream. Not only did he write songs that stand the test of time, but his interpretations of other songwriters' tunes could turn them into royalty-generating goldmines.
Charles wrote classics like "What'd I Say?" and made other songwriters' tunes into hits as well. His version of "Georgia On My Mind," written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrel, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960, even though it had been recorded by plenty of well-known performers before then.
Besides Charles' own songwriting, and the tunes he owned through his own music publishing companies, "there are few, if any, recording artists who have impacted publishing houses around the country as has Ray Charles," says Tony Gumina, president of the Ray Charles Marketing Group, which handles the late artist's licensing affairs. "If you just look at the 11 different songs where Ray won a Grammy award you'll find 14 different publishers/co-publishers."
Most of the songs that Charles wrote through 1962 are owned by Warner/Chappell Music, while the songs he wrote after that are published by Charles' own publishing operations, owned by the Ray Charles Foundation, and licensed by the Ray Charles Marketing Group, which was formed in 2005, to maximize opportunities from those rights.
Ray Charles
Fresh Lawsuit Against Starbucks
Carly Simon
Carly Simon isn't finished kicking up a storm over Starbucks' decision to get out of the music business just five days before her previous album was scheduled to be released in its stores.
The singer originally sued the coffee retailer in October, claiming that its Hear Music venture delivered a marketing plan to Simon that confirmed that her 2008 album, "This Kind of Love," would be extensively marketed and distributed at Starbucks locations in the United States and in Canada. But Simon said Starbucks decided to withdraw from Hear Music with no prior notice to her.
In April, a Los Angeles District Court judge tossed on summary judgment Simon's lawsuit, saying she failed to show how Starbucks made fraudulent misrepresentations or concealed facts that misled her. However, the judge gave Simon the opportunity to amend her complaint.
Simon is represented by star litigator David Boies, who has never been known to back down from a fight. So Simon filed an amended lawsuit in late April. Starbucks filed its response two weeks ago, and a ruling is expected soon on whether to proceed further in the case.
Carly Simon
Child Becomes Symbol Of Undocumented
Daisy Cuevas
Seven-year-old Daisy Cuevas, thrilled to see herself on television with U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, didn't quite understand the predicament in which she had innocently placed her undocumented Peruvian parents.
The TV appearance made the pigtailed second grader a voice of the estimated 12 million immigrants living in the United States illegally - and a source of pride for Peru's president, who visits Washington on Tuesday.
"My mom says that Barack Obama is taking away everybody that doesn't have papers," Daisy told the U.S. first lady on May 19 at the New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland.
"But my mom doesn't have papers," said Daisy, a U.S. citizen by virtue of her birth.
The color immediately drained from her mother's face. She ran crying to call her parents in Lima, then went into hiding, fearful of being deported.
Daisy Cuevas
'Blood Diamonds'
Naomi Campbell
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor's defense lawyers on Monday opposed a request by prosecutors at his war crimes trial to call supermodel Naomi Campbell as a witness, branding the move "a publicity stunt."
Prosecutors earlier this month filed a motion seeking to have Campbell subpoenaed to testify about claims Taylor gave her "blood diamonds" at a reception in South Africa in 1997.
Prosecutors want Campbell to testify about Taylor's alleged gift of diamonds along with actress Mia Farrow and another witness, Carole White, who were both at the same reception in South Africa.
Prosecutors say Campbell's testimony would provide "direct evidence of the accused's possession of rough diamonds from a witness unrelated to the Liberian or Sierra Leone
Naomi Campbell
Pakistan Lifts Ban
Facebook
Pakistan lifted a ban on Facebook on Monday after officials from the social networking site apologized for a page deemed offensive to Muslims and removed its contents, a top information technology official said.
The move came almost two weeks after Pakistan imposed the ban amid anger over a page that encouraged users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.
"In response to our protest, Facebook has tendered their apology and informed us that all the sacrilegious material has been removed from the URL," said Najibullah Malik, secretary of Pakistan's information technology ministry, referring to the technical term for a Web page.
Officials from the website could not immediately be reached for comment. They said earlier the contents of the "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" page did not violate Facebook's terms.
Facebook
2 Christian Aid Groups Suspended
Afghanistan
Afghan authorities suspended two Christian foreign aid groups Monday on suspicion of proselytizing in the strictly Islamic nation and said a follow-up investigation would include whether other groups were trying to convert Muslims.
U.S.-based Church World Service and Norwegian Church Aid will not be allowed to operate while the allegations, aired Sunday on Afghan television, are investigated, said Mohammad Hashim Mayar, the deputy director of the Afghan government office that oversees nongovernment organizations, known as NGOs.
An investigation commission including officers from the National Security and Interior Ministries had been appointed, he said.
Both organizations denied the allegation, and Mayar said officials did not have any evidence of proselytizing beyond the television report.
Afghanistan
Caught Between Worlds
Widows
Joann Yost still feels the stares of the other military wives five years after her husband was killed in Iraq: It happens at ceremonies honoring fallen soldiers or when she's grocery shopping with her son.
It is unsettling, but Yost understands. In this North Carolina community a half-hour from Fort Bragg, where homes are draped with American flags and where it's not uncommon to see men in buzz cuts, the 44-year-old Yost is a reminder of everything that can go wrong in war, how lives can change overnight.
It is hard to be a young military widow. Yost and others say they feel out of place in both civilian life and in their military communities. They have lost their husbands, but also their very identities, and their connections to towns that once provided a critical support system.
To be sure, it is difficult for anyone who has lost a spouse to move on with life. But military wives feel an even greater weight, said Michelle Hernandez, founder of the Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation, a national support network for the bereaved.
Widows
New Dispersant Concerns
'Oil Cloud'
A large undersea cloud of dissolved hydrocarbons discovered last week near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill raises fresh questions about toxic chemicals used to fight the spill and their environmental impact.
David Hollander, a University of South Florida oceanographer, headed a research team that discovered the six-mile (10-km) wide "oil cloud" while on a government-funded expedition aboard the Weatherbird II, a vessel operated by the university's College of Marine Science.
It was the second major deepwater plume discovered since the April 20 blowout at BP Plc's Macondo well. Hollander said it was believed to stretch all the way from the wellhead to the site where it was first detected on Tuesday, in an area off the continental shelf south of Mobile, Alabama.
Roughly 850,000 gallons (3.2 million liters) of dispersant had been used to combat the Gulf spill as of Thursday, including 150,000 gallons (570,000 liters) released below sea level.
'Oil Cloud'
Licensing & Taxing
Oakland
After becoming the first U.S. city to impose a special tax on medical marijuana dispensaries, Oakland soon could become the first to sanction and tax commercial pot growing operations. Selling and growing marijuana remain illegal under federal law.
Two City Council members are preparing legislation, expected to be introduced next month, that would allow at least three industrial-scale growing operations.
One of the authors, Councilman Larry Reid, said the proposal is more of an effort to bring in money than an endorsement of legalizing marijuana use - although the council has unanimously supported that, too.
The city is facing a $42 million budget shortfall. The tax voters approved last summer on the four medical marijuana clubs allowed under Oakland law is expected to contribute $1 million to its coffers in the first year, Reid said. A tax on growers' sales to the clubs could bring in substantially more, he said.
Oakland
In Memory
Louise Bourgeois
Artist Louise Bourgeois, whose sculptures exploring women's deepest feelings on birth, sexuality and death were highly influential on younger artists, died Monday, her studio's managing director said. She was 98.
Bourgeois had continued creating artwork - her latest pieces were finished just last week - before suffering a heart attack Saturday night, said the studio director, Wendy Williams. The artist died at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, where she lived.
Working in a wide variety of materials, she tackled themes relating to male and female bodies and emotions of anger, betrayal, even murder. Her work reflected influences of surrealism, primitivism and the early modernist sculptors such as Alberto Giacometti and Constantin Brancusi.
Bourgeois' work was almost unknown to the wider art world until she was 70, when New York's Museum of Modern Art presented a solo show of her career in 1982.
Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911; her parents ran a business restoring antique tapestries. In her early years, she studied at the Academie des Beaux-Arts and other schools and studios.
She moved to New York in 1938 after marrying the American art historian Robert Goldwater and became an American citizen in 1955. A professor of art history at New York University, Goldwater was also director of the Museum of Primitive Art, established in 1957, and wrote a key book on the topic, "Primitivism in Modern Art."
Her husband died in 1973. She is survived by two sons, Alain and Jean-Louis, as well as two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. A third son, Michel, died in 1990, Williams said.
Louise Bourgeois
In Memory
Chris Haney
Chris Haney was one of the co-creators of Trivial Pursuit but there was little that was trivial about the former journalist who died Monday at the age of 59.
"He was at least as impactful on my life as anybody, including my parents, my wife and son," Scott Abbott, who co-created Trivial Pursuit with Haney, told The Canadian Press.
Born in Welland, Ont., he was photo editor at the Montreal Gazette when he and Abbott, a Canadian Press sports journalist, teamed up to create the game which went on to become a staple of pop culture in several versions.
Haney, who had worked for The Canadian Press in various cities, met Abbott after arriving in Montreal in December 1975 to co-ordinate photo coverage of the 1976 Summer Olympics for the national news agency.
Trivial Pursuit was born when Haney and Abbott got together for a game of Scrabble in the late '70s. Their banter turned to ideas for their own game and by the end of the evening they had come up with the formula that would eventually turn them into millionaires.
Abbott said he and Haney always had a "blind faith" that the game would be successful if it got to market. Released in 1982, it took off after a slow start and the duo sold the rights to toy giant Hasbro in 2008 for US$80 million.
Haney is survived by his wife, Hiam, as well as his first wife, Sarah, their three grown children, John, Thomas and Shelagh, his brother John and sister Mary.
Chris Haney
In Memory
Ali-Ollie Woodson
Ali-Ollie Woodson, who led the legendary Motown quintet The Temptations in the 1980s and '90s and helped restore them to their hit-making glory with songs including "Treat Her Like A Lady," has died, a friend said. He was 58.
Woodson died Sunday in southern California after battling cancer, Motown Alumni Association President Billy Wilson said. Wilson said Woodson's wife, Juanita, told him about the death Sunday.
Woodson was not an original member of the group, which had several lineup changes since it started in the 1960s. But he played an integral part in keeping the Temptations from becoming just nostalgia act.
By the early 1980s, the Temptations were no longer posting hit after hit like they did in the 1960s and '70s with classics such as "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," "My Girl," and "I Wish It Would Rain."
The group had lost original members, and Woodson was charged with replacing Dennis Edwards, whose passionate voice defined the group during the 1970s.
Woodson's voice, though similar to Edwards' with its fiery tone, was distinct in itself, and helped the group notch the R&B hits "Treat Her Like A Lady," "Sail Away," and "Lady Soul," from 1984 to 1986.
Ali-Ollie Woodson
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