strangely mesmerizing

I've never seen 'The Match Game.' But yet I find this stockhouse of video stills from the 70's TV gameshow an entrancing time machine.

How Could It Not Be Waylon?

Women and seamen don't mix.

Honky Tonk Blues on PBS

PBS is airing (in NY on Thirteen) its American Masters episode "Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues" tonight at 8. For any fans of Hank's, the episode web site has some great information: an essay, career timeline, additional footage, and interview with filmmaker Morgan Neville.

If you haven't seen it already (it's a DG oldie but goodie), check out Aaron Augenblick's mesmerizing, strangely moving animated robot singing Hank's "Ramblin' Man."

(Photo from Hank Williams: Snapshots from the Lost Highway, available here on Amazon).

What's your favorite Hank Williams song? (Mine is -- well, today, at least -- "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.")

In Defense of 'Coupling'

I will admit I'm a bit of an obnoxious Anglophile. I have been known to, on a particularly bad day, stop in to A Salt and Battery on 2nd Ave. for a dinner of sausage and chips just to hear the cute accents of the counter help. I am also a big proponent of BBC America, it's one of the biggest reasons I spend stupid amounts of money each month for digital cable. You may think you know about Brit comedy because you've seen a few episodes of the award winning The Office, and if this is the case bully for you, or even if it's not that's okay, but I implore you to take a look at the sitcom Coupling.

[Here's the part of the review where I occasionally lapse into British slang to express myself.] This brilliant programme is entering its fourth series, and though it was feckin' butchered by NBC last year as they tried to translate it into the newest Friends replacement, don't let this deter you. The dreaded Friends similarities are sorta striking — six friends obsessed with relationships and who are sexually interconnected sit around to chat over liquids. But for some reason the distinction between beers versus coffee makes all the difference in the world. Or maybe its just the frequency of laugh until it hurts, so bloody humiliating you can't watch but still you must moments. Writer and creator Steven Moffat began writing the scenarios based on his relationship experiences with producer Sue Vertue, and his signature rants written for the character Steve on everything from lesbian porn and throw pillows to locks on the bathroom door pepper the show splendidly. Another style distinctive to this show's sensibility is the way particularly off the wall characters can deliver a line about sex and love that is strikingly bizarre, but say it in a way that seems the most natural attitude in the world. Coupling is the Truth Snake of sitcom television — achingly comedic but also very real at the same time. And jolly good tellie as well, mind you.

Series One thru Three are available to rent on DVD at Netflix and also probably your local good video store. Series Four begins on BBC America this Sunday, June 6 at 9 and 10:20 pm. Pip pip!

That's One Sexy Spin Cycle

If you've ever wondered what life as a comedy writer is like, go no further than Slate's diary with Demetri Martin, a sketch writer for Conan.

After dinner, Mike read our new characters. I didn't have such a great batch. One of mine did OK—a character named "Suzanne: Sexy Washing Machine," which would be a washing machine wearing a bikini. I'm not saying it's great, but I think it would make me laugh if I saw it. My favorite of the ones I wrote was "One Man Band on the Toilet." That would be a guy playing a few instruments while sitting on the toilet. It didn't get anything. It was a selfish pitch anyway.

Doesn't God Ever Call These People Just to Say Hey?

What do PBS's Colonial House and last night's Frontline episode, "The Jesus Factor" have in common? Two subjects who believe they've been called by God to lead.

In a maddening master stroke of casting, PBS appointed Jeff Wyers, a Southern Baptist minister from Texas, as Governor of the colony on Colonial House. In what (at least so far) has been the central theme of the show, Wyers attempts to create a "City on a Hill" by enforcing 17th century laws -- most of which are, incidentally, similar to Baptist teachings -- under which the colonists begin to chafe. While enforcement of the laws seems appropriate for historical verisimilitude, Wyers clearly uses his role in the colony as one of a missionary. In an almost maniacal blurring of reality and reality TV, Wyers says he has been called by God to lead the colony.

"The Jesus Factor," which aired last evening but can be viewed online, explores the growing political impact of evangelical Christians and particularly the relationship between George W. Bush's faith and his presidency. For us atheist types (and I would imagine for religious people of a less evangelical stripe), the fact that GWB genuinely believes God has called him to be President of the United States is a chilling one. While the show sometimes has a slightly humorous "Christianity 101 for Godless Liberals" tone, it's definitely illuminating about the origins of the Religious Right in politics as well as GWB's own faith.

Both shows address timely questions about the relationship of religion to public life, both in historical and current contexts. Coincidence, PBS? We think not.

(p.s. Find here the rest of Steven Cloud's equally timely BoaSaS comic that's excerpted above.)

Star Tucker

Recent Jeopardy! champ and idiosyncratic paleoconservative Tucker Carlson will don his bowtie to host his own show on PBS, beginning June 18. I read Carlson's book, and while I found his logic flawed, I admire his story-telling ability and his basically good nature. Perhaps I feel an affinity for Carlson because of the bowtie (it really is better for eating soup!), but also I like his ability to appreciate human characters for being human characters, and not having to always be right. I'll definitely be tuning in.

Read Carlson's CNN bio here (and see the accompanying picture of Tucker trying out for a role in Croupier). Read the bitter Fox News rebuttal of Carlson's encouraging millions of people to prank the Fox newsroom here. Check out his archive of work for New York magazine here -- though let me say Carlson's at his best when writing funny stories and character pieces.

The Special Edition DG 'Friends' Drinking Game

It's Our Generation's 'Who Shot JR?'!!

1. Take a drink if you're missing the last episode of Friends.
2. If someone asks why you're not watching the last episode of Friends, take a drink.
3. If you know that there's going to be a Friends spin-off called "Joey," take a drink. By reading this message, you now know.
4. If you resent the fact that you know about the spin-off, take a drink.
5. If you ever tried to calculate how much rent the Friends characters would pay in rent, take a drink.
6. If you resent the fact that you know what the Friends characters' apartments look like, take a drink.
7. If you find yourself wandering the streets in order to find a place without the final episode of Friends playing, take a drink.
8. For every fun-loving happy group of friends who step over your drunken body and look like they're going to watch the last episode of Friends, take a drink.
9. If you resent the fact that you wrote this message, take a drink and never think of the show again.

Chappelle Schmappelle

Although we poor editors of DG are sadly without expanded cable, we have managed to catch some clips from Chappelle's Show on the Comedy Central site. Admittedly, I haven't seen more than a handful of clips from the show, but so far, I don't get why it's so popular. While there definitely are scattered funny moments (the "I Know Black People" sketch, the part on Newports, in particular), every sketch I've seen beats a single idea within an inch of its life, reminding me of the episode of The Simpsons with the comedian at the Improv:

Comedian: Yo, check this out. Black guys drive a car like this: doo doo chhh ba doo doo. Yeah but white guys, they just drive a car like this: Badiptdadoo badipta dipta doo!

Homer: Ahahah! It's true!

Yes, the Rick James sketch was funny, but I defy anyone to make Rick James unfunny! And again, way too long for the concept.

I'm also somewhat biased, I admit, by having once seen Chappelle tank on Conan. In addition to brazenly hitting on the even-more-vapid-than-usual model-actress guest, he was just, well, catastrophically unfunny. Even Conan seemed embarrassed for him.

Thankfully, I'm not the only dissenting opinion. Yankee Pot Roast has a hysterical piece on Dave Chappelle, The Grand Imposter. I know Chappelle has tons of fans out there, so if I'm wildly off-base, I'd love to be proven wrong.

Bitch.

Reality Check

Chica has watched metaphor-gone-awry surgical makeover show The Swan and lived to write about it so we don't have to:

In the end, The Swan has more sympathy towards its premise than it does for its contestants, and its audience is likely to dole out sympathy in the opposite proportions. We may find a woman's long list of physical insecurities disturbing, but far more disturbing is the person who, by eradicating the source of each insecurity, confirms each insecurity as justified.

"The Real World" Strikes Television Gold!

If you haven’t been watching “The Real World” this season, you honestly aren’t missing much. That is, much besides the biggest camera whore on basic cable.

Meet Frankie.

She started the show by saying that she has cystic fibrosis, while chain smoking. That didn’t get harped on too much though because she quickly showed signs of another disease. The one where you take a drink of alcohol, make out with people, and then can’t remember anything the next day. This brought a lot of tears because she is totally devoted to her long-term boyfriend at home. But there was one episode where she wasn’t the center of attention so she broke up with the boyfriend. So many tears.

Then the roommates got a job on a boat, and Frankie came clean about her crippling fear of large boats. It seems to be one of those one-time-crippling-fears since she has been near or on them since and it’s been a non-issue. More and more tears.

Then she bought a pet snake that is projected to grow to 220 pounds. While she is on a reality show far from home, she decides that she can take on a large pet responsibility. Mmm okay.

This means nothing though, because this week she iced her own cake by coming out as a not-so-secret cutter. She grabbed a knife, as cameras followed her, went into the bathroom, and then came out, dropped the knife at the feet of a roommate (with a SMILE ON HER FACE) then picked it up and placed the dirty knife in the sink of dirty dishes. Her cry for attention was heard around the world as she allowed camera crews to come with her to a single therapy session at the end of the episode. A camera crew in therapy. Did I mention the tears?

I can’t wait until later in the season when she has sex with a roommate , gets diagnosed with Lyme disease, confronts her troubles with alcoholism, and comes out of the closet.

Trumping the Donald

TMN has a great piece written by a Brooklynite whose building was invaded by The Apprentice.

My reality collided with reality TV during episode seven of NBC’s The Apprentice. The premise was a hyped-up competition over real estate. The remaining participants were challenged to renovate and rent one of two ‘rundown’ Brooklyn apartments in 48 hours. One of those apartments was a third-floor, one-bedroom in a brownstone on Third Street, where my family and I live on the first two floors. On screen, the team leaders stood outside our stoop and negotiated for the apartment above us. Off screen, we knew a few things they didn’t. A month before, for instance, the previous occupant and my upstairs neighbor had jumped out the window.

Two movies that have absolutely nothing in common.

In one weekend I saw both “Dawn of the Dead” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

For fun I decided to go to a midnight showing of "Dawn of the Dead” on Saturday night. Midnight shows make scary movies infinitely scarier. I was prepared to watch a good portion of the movie through closed eyes and held breath, or at the very least, to laugh a lot.

The opening was really good. Super fast and scary and fun. But after that I can’t remember being scared again. I do remember fearing for the safety of others, as people continued to text message each other INSIDE THE THEATER until some guy yelled “yeah, one more and that phone goes in your ass!” right in time too, because I was about to kill someone. There was also a considerable amount of both pot smoking and making out going on during the film. I can’t say that I understand it but I can also say that I wasn’t surprised. My final thought, see the original and be scared and smoke weed in your own home.

Oh, and P.S. Hollywood, you don’t need to do anything else to make pregnancy and child birth seem more gross or scary. Thank you.

The next day I met my friends for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ."

This was a movie that I did not want to see originally. I thought it was a really well done trailer. My friend Brandon made me watch that trailer 3 times in a row on his computer until I admitted that it was awesome. But I thought it was like a slick music video, which wasn’t surprising knowing Michel Gondry’s work. I hated “Human Nature,” though. I thought it was a piece of crap that had this tone of "i'm very clever, listen to this clever insight!" It was like listening to a person who thinks they are smarter than every one else, talk. Anyway, I decided early on not to be interested in this movie.

I also think I might hate Charlie Kaufman. Not that everything he does is bad, just that I don’t like him. He was on Charlie Rose last week in a rare television appearance and I can’t tell if he is arrogant or the rest of the world is pushing arrogance on him. It seems to me that he hasn't written that much but is talked about like this hollywood golden boy who everyone can count on for a quirky hit. Here is a dissenting opinion from someone with a lot more personal contact with him than I have had. He did write for "Get a Life" though, and that holds a special place in my heart.

Anyway, by the opening credits I had given in to the movie. I loved it in a way that I rarely love movies. I feel bad writing much about it because I don’t want to hype it too much. The hype curse can kill movies and I want this movie to LIVE. It is very real, and believable and sweet and sad. So I guess I might have to start hating Charlie Kaufman less… for now.

The Times on Conan

Sunday's Times has a great article (may require free login) about Conan O'Brien's uncertain future with NBC after the network's extension of Jay Leno's contract for the 11:30 slot until the end of the decade.

Throughout, Conan's disappointment is palpable. The article points out that, should Conan choose to stay at NBC until the end of Jay's contract, he will have spent 17 years -- a "television eternity" -- in the less-appealling 12:30 slot.

Conan's manager Gavin Polone notes Conan's many alternatives: Fox, which has seriously approached Conan in the past; CBS, in the unlikely event that Letterman decides to step down, or even Comedy Central. Conan's take:

None of the outside options seem all that clear-cut to Mr. O'Brien — at least at the moment. "There may be possibilities, but are they viable?" he says. "NBC at 12:30 is still better than a lot of things. Following the `Tonight' show is still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. There is the curiosity to take the show earlier. But if going to another network for more money still means being seen by fewer people, what are you doing? Then it's just an ego thing."

In honor of Conan, who Gusto believes deserves the slot much more than the smarmy and un-funny Jay Leno:

1. Watch clips of the show online.

2. Watch Conan's Simpsons episodes on DVD ("Only I may dance").

3. Impersonate your favorite Conan characters -- Masturbating Bear, Pimpbot 5000, or Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.