Lili is my SuperFriend

I found a copy of "Justice League Unlimited: Season 2" at a GameStop and started watching it yesterday. I'd never seen it on Cartoon Network, and was surprised how gritty it was. I mean, it happens just outside camera range, but people die in the show, which seemed an unwritten taboo for Saturday morning shows when I was a kid. Plus, the dialog is pretty snappy at times, like when the Flash, excited that Batman has agreed to come to his party, says, "You're really coming?...Awesome! You're a stand-up guy Bats; don't ever let them call you a crazed loner." Not Oscar Wilde, but pretty funny and delivered well by the actor.
So, given all that, when I got to the episode called "Chaos at Earth's Core" I still decided to invite Lili to watch it with me because it starred both Stargirl and Supergirl, and I know that Lili loves to see stories about girls. Plus, I think Stargirl is a great idea for a superhero: a somewhat conceited, altogether real teenager. Anyway, Lili loved it and we ended up watching several episodes in a row. It was so fun to sit next to her and munch a little popcorn and have her get a little tense with the building tension of the stories, then watch her release when the story reaches the conclusion. I love having things like that to share with her.

Go Pennants!

One of my favorite ongoing Simpsons jokes is when Homer holds up a little pennant to show he's excited about something. I'm going to keep building a collection of them, but here's the two I've found so far from the Season 10 DVDs I just got:

• 5F21 The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace: Homer holds up a pennant saying "School" to prove to the Springfield Elementary librarian that he's a student and thereby entitled to use the library (he's been banned from the public library).


• AABF09 Homer To the Max: Homer's Mid-Season pennant shows his excitement for the new replacement series the networks will be showing.

More pennants to come!

Alf and the Simpsons... Stop Me!

I just got the Simpsons Season 10 DVD, and I was unaware how many of my favorite episodes were on it. "Mayored to the Mob" has some of my favorite lines in the whole series. Any time I'm happy with a vegetable dish, I'm secretly thinking "that's a quality side." And, of course, there's the lovable ALF!

Alf Update!

You know, I didn't put it together until I read an article about the new Simpsons movie, but I bet the "Michael Reiss" who co-wrote the two Alf episodes with Al Jean (which I referenced earlier) was the same "Mike Reiss" who wrote for the Simpsons and was, according to IMDB, Jean's college roommate. I didn't put it together because IMDB.com has separate entries for Michael Reiss and Mike Reiss.

AWFUL product placements

I really, really like "The Closer" on TNT, but do they think they are fooling anyone with the product placements? That lingering shot on a bag of cookies, the ham-handed Revlon plot, and the just-plain-weird way her phone is always set to play the T-Mobile jingle have all made an otherwise gritty and realistic show seem foolishly amateur. If there has to be a product placement (and really, does there have to be? Haven't I already paid for cable?) can't it be as artfully inserted as any other plot point? Is the advertiser to blame, or the show's talent? Either way, it's a real problem for that show.

Us on the Simpsons

Karen made this picture of what our family would look like if we were on the Simpsons.

It Must Be Said...

"ALF" rocks!

I found a copy of ALF Season 2 at a pawn shop for cheap, and I thought I would flip it... but when Karen and I watched it we laughed at almost every joke. I had forgotten how surprisingly clever it could be. It wasn't clever in the "Frasier" way, but just well written jokes performed by a talented voice actor. In fact, speaking of well-written jokes and talented voice actors, one of the first episodes we watched just happened to be written by Al Jean, who would go on to write and show-run "The Simpsons!"
In fact, there's a very Simpsons-esque joke in one of the episodes I watched, "The Boy Next Door." After waiting for a whole scene to get a piece of cake, Alf finally is offered some and makes the same "Gaaach" sound that Homer makes when he drools "Mmm...cake" or "Mmm... open-faced sand wedge" or whatever.
Also, the Tanners' next-door neighbor asks if the has any tools he can borrow. "Sure," the Tanner's dad says, "they're in your garage." That joke is similar to the running bit on the Simpsons where Homer borrows Flanders stuff without returning it.
In the other Season 2 episode credited to Jean, Alf is doing a jigsaw puzzle. One character tells him that the piece he is holding does not fit, and Alf says that it does and pounds it into the puzzle. I haven't done my homework on which Simpsons specific episode Homer pounds a piece into a puzzle, but I know he does. Are these direct-line links between the two shows? You be the judge!

Amazon Unbox & TiVo, the saga's conclusion

I finally got my networked TiVo to work with Amazon's Unbox, but not because of anything I did, I think. The network forced an upgrade for my TiVo software (which coincidentally or not came after a call to TiVo about my inability to download Unbox stuff), and it worked perfectly after that. If you're having trouble with the system, try getting an upgrade to system 6.3. Now I'm enjoying Veronica Mars episodes with Karen - one a night until my freebies run out. I hope we don't get a cliffhanger and start having to pay :)