Grid Effect

A few posting notes before we get to any links: Remember when I promised to do nightly previews for the new fall season a second time last week? Well, we are pushing that back yet again as a result of the baseball playoffs and fucking FOX airing a game every night. We feel like we should do the previews while baseball is still taking place so we have carte blanche to ridicule a sport that we were once so fond of and is now reduced to a parody of its former self. But then that means we would be talking about baseball, and we would lose what little readership we actually have.

So yeah, expect those a couple weeks from now. To the links…

Simon Cowell earns $36 million for American Idol alone, says one Australian publication. I don’t know why his salary is so widely reported. I feel like I give an update on it every month or so. I think it either goes to show just how unthinkable it is that he earns a Michael Jordan salary for doing what he does, or maybe if they mention it enough his property will be raped and pillaged as a result of the current and burgeoning economic collapse. Trust me, if “the people” ever rise up against the rich, Simon Cowell will be the first on the chopping block.

Mark Wahlberg is not a fan of Andy Samberg’s impersonation of him on SNL this past weekend, leaving me in a bind where I can’t really side with Wahlberg or the sketch comedy show. Wahlberg claims he just wishes it was funnier, which most sentients translate into “I take myself entirely too seriously and didn’t think it was funny because it was parodying me”. On the other hand, we haven’t laughed at anything SNL has done in the past eight or nine years, so his point is probably valid. It would help us a great deal if we watched the sketch, but we do not have any audio at work and are not about to watch SNL with our free time. I guess we’ll just have to move on, holding both parties in contempt.

Yeah, we'll probably ultimately side with SNL on this one, but we'll need more time to come to grips with the decision.

Despite its terminally low ratings that would understandably get any other series on the face of the Earth canceled, NBC has ordered more scripts of the remake for Knight Rider. If you haven’t noticed, other than announcing that NBC was actually remaking the regularly mocked Hasselhoff 80’s action series, we’ve been ignoring that this show even existed. Well, leave it to NBC and their piss poor leadership to bring it back into the forefront on this site. They are either so use to being in last place that they subconsciously make decisions that will keep them there, or Ben Silverman is intentionally sabotaging the network before they have the balls to can his coke-addled ass.

Here’s one more update on The Wire box set: It will contain a blooper reel.  Yes, that’s right, probably the greatest tragedy ever made for television will highlight the follies and fumbles of the series’ numerous actors. I have to have this. It will either provide an ounce of levity that will ruin the dramatic edge to the series, or it will be the first blooper reel in the history of blooper reels that we actually laugh at. Can someone implore the fine folks at Amazon to just post a picture of the item on its sale page so I know what I am pre-ordering? Much obliged.

And finally, Mad Men will have its own category on Jeopardy this Friday, and if it gives you any idea just how obsessed we are with this series (especially after the most recent episode), we might actually make a point to tune into it. We played the online game that they link to and do not be fooled, it actually has very little (if anything at all) to do with the series. It is basically questions about trends in advertising and pop culture for the early 60’s. If you don’t know shit about these things then do not bother playing, it will only piss you off.

Back with links or something tomorrow.