Archive for the ‘television’ category

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Ellen DeGeneres Receives PETA Honor

January 2, 2010

– – U.S. TV hostess Ellen Degeneres has been named Woman of the Year by PETA (People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals) for her work in raising awareness of their campaigns promoting a lifestyle friendly to nature.  Tim Gunn was named Man of the Year.  PETA said that it gave Ellen its award for being vegan and championing a meat and dairy-free lifestyle, as well as for some of the guests featured on her show.

“The message that animals must be treated kindly and respectfully has reached scores of people, and many of them have changed their buying habits, all because Gunn and DeGeneres spoke up for the voiceless,” said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.

…and that’s a good thing!


Categories: animal rights, animals, furry causes, furry perspectives, television
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Rampant Rodentia!

December 12, 2009

– – He ain’t cute, cuddly, or good-looking.  It’s not even a great fursuit.  But you gotta love this guy, and these commercials!

It’s the d-Con Dinner Guest or “Get Out” commercial series, featuring an uninvited guest of the rodent persuasion as he gets into homes where he’s simply not wanted.  In one episode, this life-size, scruffy-looking mouse is confronted by the female homeowner, who sneers,  “You disgust me!”  to our hero.  He’s not shaken; “Prove it!,” he counters in a deadpan monotone.

Maybe you wouldn’t want this guy in your house either, but I’d have him in for coffee and a Danish…he’s refreshing, furry, and a wonderful antihero!- -What a great counter to the usual cutesy mice we see!- –Bravo!!!- –As Soupy Sales would have had it, “Let’s all do the Mouse!”

– -Two paws up for this world-weary, unflappable rodent!


Categories: Brilliant but twisted, cool things, furries, furry, humor, television
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– -Stonehenge “Rocks!”

December 4, 2009

– – Stonehenge is freakin’ awesome!- -I’d like to be buried there…preferably after I’m dead, of course.   A recent MysteryQuest episode considered the purpose of Stonehenge, advancing a theory that sound reverberations inside the ancient English circle of stones induced a trance-like state among participants in rituals held there.  Other theories promoted in the past have considered Stonehenge as a shrine to a god, an ancient solar calendar, or even a sacrificial altar for an unknown pagan religion.

Now we all enjoy throbbing bass rhythms, and the dudes in England 4,000 years ago were no exception!  Wailing on drums around the perimeter of Stonehenge reverbs nicely against those ancient stone monoliths, and grooving on this boots up the old alpha rhythms in your brain, which has been shown neurologically to promote slipping into a trance-like state; think Woodstock 2000 B.C.!   Pretty soon you think you’re rapping with a deity, or at least some dead ancestors.–Far out!–Works for me!

The notion of human sacrifices was discounted by MysteryQuest as an infrequent occurrence, although remains of one poor devil on site called “the archer” revealed that he was used as a human pincushion and punctured with quite a few arrows; that could ruin your whole day!

The episode was in my opinion one of the better ones of this series so far, and I’m up to form a drum circle at Stonehenge if you are…have your people call mine…      😉

Categories: historical perspectives, mysteries, television, unexplained
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–Diver Dan!

November 30, 2009

– – Kid’s shows used to have special effects that weren’t terribly special.  Take, for example, Diver Dan, a cheesy black and white show from the early 1960’s that was shot through a large fish tank with the human cast simply on the other side of the tank acting out their scenes! Diver Dan wore a clunky old-style deep sea diving suit, and talked to anthropomorphic fish-marionettes that floated by.- -Here, Diver Dan is shown with the affable Finley.

Some of the fish characters were a hoot, however, and included the evil Baron Barracuda with his sidekick, Trigger Fish, who was usually shown smoking a cigarette!  Don’t ask me how he managed to get it to stay lit underwater…they were innocent and politically incorrect times, anyhow…  

Categories: animals, scalies, television
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Patrick McGoohan Remembered…

November 17, 2009

– – The original Number Six from the ground-breaking series The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan, died in January this year at the age of 80.

The 1960’s television world boasted some of the  best and the worst, ranging from the heights of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone to the depths of…say, The Cowsills. The original Prisoner show was a heady mix of geopolitics, sci-fi, and psychedelia that even The Beatles loved…a mix of Kafka and Orwell that sadly only lasted for 17 episodes but left an enduring impact…

…and Patrick McGoohan was one of the great ones, cool, tough, and cerebral all at the same time!

Categories: cool things, television
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“The Prisoner” Returns!

November 14, 2009

The Prisoner– – Way back in 1967, a surreal series debuted on television called The Prisoner which was part spy series and part sci-fi drama. The British cult hit   featured none less than Patrick McGoohan playing a character called  Six who was held captive in a bizarre place called The Village, a community led by a man called (- -what else?) Two. The ambiguous show was unlike anything else on television of the day, and while incomprehensible to many,  it went on to profoundly  influence television, music, comic books, and movies for decades to come; echoes of The Prisoner reverberated in an episode of The Fantastic Four, in the Twin Peaks series, and even in the comic book and movie of Watchmen, where Rorschach adopted the prisoner’s “Be seeing you” as his personal sign-off.

In the series, a man finds himself inexplicably trapped in The Village with no recollection of how he arrived.  His fellow inhabitants are identified by number rather than name, and are under constant surveillance.  Not knowing who to trust,  Six is driven by a need to understand The Village, his reason for his being there, and how he can escape.  You can read all kinds of things into it…

With Jim Caviezel in the lead role as Six and Ian McKellen as Two, The Prisoner debuts this Sunday evening on the AMC channel…Be seeing you!

Categories: cool things, television
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The Arica Monster…

November 5, 2009

Arica monster– –Destination Truth recently had an episode with a secondary storyline line on the Arica Monster, a supposedly raptor-like creature inhabiting the Northern Chilean desert.  On the desert road, people have reported seeing a dinosaur-like beast keeping pace with their cars, a neat trick.  Described as large, standing on his hind legs, and having leathery skin, the beast is a fast runner with a distinctive three-toed print who attacks with razor-sharp teeth.

Destination Truth often has comic overtones that MonsterQuest lacks (remember the Mongolian Death Worms episode?), and Josh Gates and his team have such a limited budget that they are reduced to pursuing travel arrangements on Orbitz. They tend to take spills and get sick even while thoroughly enjoying themselves.   As for the raptor remnant, expert opinion is that it was a rhea, an ostrich-like bird with a three-toed print…

Categories: animals, anomalies, cool things, cryptozoology, extinct species, mysteries, television, unexplained, unidentified
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The “Real” Werewolf on MonsterQuest

November 1, 2009

Gevaudan werewolf– – MonsterQuest recently aired a two-hour episode investigating the killing of over 100 peasants by a werewolf-like creature in southern France during the mid-1700’s.  As the slayings occurred over 240 years ago, extensive speculation and reconstruction was involved as provided by a cryptozoologist and a criminal investigator.

The Beast of Gevaudan slaughtered primarily women and children in an often gruesome fashion, at times decapitating the victims, eviscerating them, or consuming limbs.  The killings began in 1764, and continued for about three years, drawing the attention of Louis XV whose expert hunters dispatched a large wolf but failed to halt the peasant slayings.

That task was accomplished by one Jean Chastel, who used (–what else?) a silver bullet to kill the beast.  Speculation by the MonsterQuest investigators and others has been that the true “werewolf” was in fact a striped hyena, which may have actually been trained to accomplish his mayhem by Chastel himself!

The Beast of Gevaudan will continue to fascinate speculators, and the events form the historical basis for much of the rich present day werewolf sagas, which one hopes will continue for the indefinite future…150px-Woman_&_La_Bete

Categories: animals, anomalies, cryptozoology, furry, historical perspectives, mysteries, television, unexplained, unidentified
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The Abominable Snowman on MonsterQuest!

October 26, 2009

Abominable– – MonsterQuest finally came up with their long-awaited episode on the Yeti on October 25th after previous ho-hum episodes on wild dogs and rats.- – Here at last is a cryptid worthy of consideration!  The Abominable Snowman differs from his North American Bigfoot cousin in being more aggressive and carnivorous; he’s nocturnal, and goes after both people and their livestock in the Himalayas.- – You gotta give the big guy credit for that!

Examined were hair and footprint evidence as well as images from cameras.  The most recent footprint from 2008 was actually regarded to be a hoofprint, kind of a drag-impression in the snow distorted by multiple freeze and thaw cycles.  Fifty-year old hair samples supposedly from the skullcap of a Yeti were also analyzed, and found to be from a deer-like creature.  Picture images from cameras set up at different locations were of the usual birds with perhaps an antlered beast or two thrown in.  Lastly, eyewitness accounts of the Yeti were chalked off as being misidentified bears!

There were some interesting sidebars; apparently, the Nazis had sent teams out in pursuit of the Yeti, and locals led the Nazis to a supposed lair where they shot…a bear! I also loved a scene where an investigative team came upon a slaughtered and partly-eaten goat, perhaps consumed by the Yeti; the lead investigator indulged himself in the treat, which had been lying out for five or six days, and found it to be like jerky…”rather tasty, actually,” he proclaimed.–Anyone else up for five-day old goat, partly eaten by who knows what?–Didn’t think so…

It’s well been pointed out that even known identified species are hard to track over wild terrain, so I’m really not surprised by the lack of Yeti evidence. –And why do we call him Abominable, together with “terrifying” and “ferocious?” – – Doesn’t the Yeti just need a good spin doctor?–Why not as in the Tundra cartoon, come up with an Amiable Snowman?

Categories: anomalies, cool things, cryptozoology, furry, rare animal, television, unexplained, unidentified
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Soupy Sales Gone…

October 24, 2009

Soupy Sales— I can’t take the loss of many more of my childhood icons; Captain Kangaroo has passed on, and now also Soupy Sales at age 83.   Soupy in my opinion has never gotten the credit or recognition that he deserved; a comedian of television, radio, and film born Milton Supman, Soupy drew heavily from slapstick and also used word play and improvisation. His comedy wasn’t always sophisticated, but it could be clever and was always funny; taking a pie in the face was a stock in trade, and Soupy estimated that he and his visitors took 20,000 pies in the course of his career.  Soupy was big at the time in the New York area where I grew up in to the extent that kids would imitate him and do his routines.

Soupy had furry elements; two of the visitors to his shows were dogs called White Fang and Black Tooth, who appeared at his door as giant shaggy paws with felt triangular claws.  White Fang spoke with unintelligible growls and grunts which Soupy repeated back to his audience in English; Black Tooth was also unintelligible, but was into giving loud and sloppy kisses to Soupy off-camera.   Then there was Pookie the Lion, a hip character prone to appearing in Soupy’s window who you could understand. – -Soupy even had a novelty dance record and song called The Mouse which was wildly popular in the mid-1960’s!- –Hey!–Do the Mouse, Yeah! I last saw Soupy on game shows, those last retreats of celebrities past their popularity prime.  Even then, he was funny, using his improv talents to transcend the medium and material that he had to work with.

As Soupy was influenced by the Marx Brothers, so he also influenced other comedians including Andy Kaufman and Paul Reubens; if you twist and press Soupy’s persona, you get Pee-wee Herman!   Soupy was an earlier prototype of the cheerfully demented childrens’ TV show host, filled with manic energy.   All of these comics realized that much comic inspiration can be drawn from childhood, which can be darker and more twisted  than many realize…

Thank you, Soupy, for all the laughter and the furry undertones!   To quote lyrics from The Mouse, “every cat in the neighborhood will be in shock.”

Cats, you see, loved Soupy Sales, and will miss him as will I…


Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry heroes, furry spirits, humor, television
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