Apologies for the late start to the day, but Microkhan Jr. decided to rob the clan of some much-needed sleep in the wee hours. Unable to get back to the Sandman’s realm once the kid had been pacified, I passed the time by catching up on The World at War. Lots of good stuff there, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'TV'
Fleet Street’s Dubious Science
August 27th, 2010 · No Comments
Tags:Britain·pseudoscience·racism·The World at War·TV·World War II
If You’re Feeling Sinister
August 5th, 2010 · 10 Comments
Last night, I finally started working my way through The World at War, which I’ve long heard is the be-all and end-all of World War II documentaries. With only a single episode under my belt, I’m not yet equipped to verify the veracity of that statement. But there’s no disputing the filmmakers’ skills at digging [...]
Krinklebein’s Poor Russian
May 28th, 2010 · No Comments
We’re still in northern Michigan with the Grand Empress, and you’re hopefully prepping for a raucous three-day weekend. As you pack or purchase beer, enjoy the sonic stylings of a talking fish and his feline arch-nemesis—one of Microkhan Jr.’s favorites. It really is a fine piece of animation, save for the fact that Mr. Krinklebein’s [...]
Tags:cartoons·Cat in the Hat·music·Russia·TV
This World, Then the Visigoths
January 5th, 2010 · No Comments
Over the past several days, no ad campaign has been as inescapable as the one hyping Food Network’s recently aired “Super Chef Battle”. The innumerable commercials and Web banners that ran in support of the event made it seem like a culinary version of a Thunderdome match, crossed with the Apollo Creed versus Ivan Drago [...]
Tags:ancient history·Croesus·food·Food Network·Herodotus·Mario Batali·Roman Empire·TV
Kenya, Continued
December 16th, 2009 · No Comments
Still plugging away on the Kenya piece for Wired, so few if any deep thoughts this afternoon. Fortunately, The Tubes provide us with a quick and easy way to keep the Microkhan mojo going—namely, the priceless ad above for C-3PO cereal. This breakfast treat not only further lined George Lucas’s burgeoning pockets with cash; it [...]
Tags:1980s·advertising·breakfast cereal·C-3PO·cigarettes·Star Wars·TV
The Peace Shield
November 9th, 2009 · 1 Comment
In response to Friday’s post on the launch of our “Bulletproof Project,” a commenter wryly noted that we should include the Strategic Defense Initiative among our list of magical shields. That quip naturally reminded us of this classic ad, in which a pro-SDI group tried to break down the appeal of Star Wars into the [...]
A State That’s Untouchable, Like Eliot Ness
October 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Instead of hitting you with our weekly Bad Movie Friday entry, we’ve decided to round out our cough-syrup trilogy with a classic ad: Oddjob shilling for Vicks Formula 44. Good thing there’s no narcotic in there to slow him down. And the phenylpropanolamine should make him a much more energetic opponent for Mr. Bond. We’re [...]
Tags:advertising·James Bond·medicine·movies·Oddjob·TV·Vicks Formula 44
The Waga Toso Loophole
October 13th, 2009 · 5 Comments
We’re in the midst of watching The Nazis: A Warning from History, which really should be required viewing for anyone who casually throws around Hitler analogies when discussing contemporary politicians. It’s chilling stuff through-and-through, loaded with interviews with unrepentant party members and victims of persecution alike. The series essentially argues that the Third Reich was [...]
Tags:Adolf Hitler·books·Germany·Mein Kampf·Nazism·politics·TV
Beastmaster Errata
August 10th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Look, we’re big enough Mongolian monarchs to admit when we’ve goofed. And that’s exactly what appears to be the case with last week’s Bad Movie Friday post about the 1982 Marc Singer vehicle The Beastmaster. We riffed about Singer’s apparent refusal to save the life of the ferret that had just helped pluck him from [...]
Tags:animals·Bad Movie Friday·errata·ferrets·Marc Singer·movies·rodents·The Beastmaster·TV
Mr. T, Copyright Defender
July 29th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Huge apologies for the string of bummer posts over the past few days—murder-for-hire, arms smuggling, and gulags do not a happy Microkhan reader make, we now realize. So let us make it up to you by sharing an episode of Mr. T’s eponymous (and hugely underrated) Reagan-era cartoon. It involves stuntmen, ninjas, and movie piracy, [...]
Tags:1980s·cartoons·Clubber Lang·Mr. T·TV
Motrin, Motrin Everywhere
July 24th, 2009 · No Comments
Apologies for the super-late start today. Microkhan Jr.’s struggling with an aggressive virus that landed the whole crew in the ER last night. Naps, kiddie Motrin, and maybe a touch of kumis are in order, then we hope to catch y’all in a few. In the meantime, reward yourself with a week well done by [...]
Animal Could Have Done It
July 20th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Tending to Microkhan Jr. has given us a newfound appreciation for great kiddie fare of yore, most notably the late, great Muppet empire. And do when we stumbled across this clip of various Henson creations “auditioning” for the role of Yoda, we couldn’t resist the urge to pass it along. Honestly, we could totally see [...]
Tags:Drunken Master·martial arts·Muppets·parenting·Star Wars·TV·Yoda
“Stolen by the Beast Who Has No Name…”
July 8th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Yesterday’s riff on Medieval weaponry got us thinking about one of of our favorite Saturday-morning shows of yore: the cartoon version of Dungeons & Dragons. To be totally honest, we were never really big on the game behind the series—guess we suffer from that whole lack-of-imagination thing, and thus needed moving images spoon-fed into our [...]
Pigeon Protectionism
July 2nd, 2009 · 1 Comment
If a Massachusetts pigeon breeder gets his way, out-of-state squabs could soon be aves non grata on the state’s film and TV sets. Bill Desmarais has coaxed the Massachusetts House of Representatives into considering H816 (PDF), more colloquially known as “An act relative to pigeons in motion pictures.” The bill’s text reads in full: Be [...]
Tags:law·Massachusetts·movies·pigeons·politics·Smoot-Hawley·TV
Wings of Silver, Nerves of Steel
June 29th, 2009 · 8 Comments
We’re prepping to head downtown for the 20th anniversary screening of Do the Right Thing, a momentous occasion that has us on yet another ’80s nostalgia kick. It thus bears mentioning that another great cultural artifact is celebrating an important milestone this year— turns 23! And what better way to mark the occasion than with [...]
The Stuff of Kiddie Nightmares
June 9th, 2009 · 9 Comments
We’re dog tired today due to Microkhan Jr.’s recent sleep woes. He woke up screaming at an ungodly hour, obviously having suffered through a terrible nightmare. And as we rocked him back into the Sandman’s embrace, we got to thinking—in our Reagan-era days as a wee bairn, what caused us to suffer similar night terrors? [...]
Tags:Jane Badler·sci-fi·TV·V
Don’t Talk to Strangers
March 3rd, 2009 · 1 Comment
Thanks to the magic of Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” option, I recently became reacquainted with The A-Team, a childhood TV favorite. To say that I was underwhelmed would be an understatement—funny how the 1980s juvenile mind was unable to discern the campiness of network action shows. A makeshift cannon that shoots out lettuce, and is integral [...]
