Tag Archives: TV

So Long, Prison Break

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Prison Break, one of the finest broadcast teevee shows to ever grace a screen, had its series finale episode Friday night.

I’ll not do any buzzkill recaps, in case it’s still on your DVR, but the finale was awesome. After four seasons of nail-biting, sitting on the edge of the chair drama, the finale wrapped it all up and put a bow on it. No speculation, no letdown; it’s over. Done. Fini. I’ll say only that this is the only episode in which MLB dabbed her eyes with a Kleenex. I have to admit I blinked pretty fast, and didn’t talk much, to avoid choking up.

Four seasons; a good run of an exciting show. Wrapped up right. Our weekly teevee fare won’t be the same without it, but in the same way that a good 8 ounce steak is more satisfying than a whole pound of greasy hamburger, we’re happy.

I ordered the DVD of season 4 from Amazon; we already had the rest of them. This is a series we’ll revisit later.

-k-

Indy Cars

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While I typed into this old waste of bandwidth blog yesterday afternoon, the Indy 500 Pole Day Qualifying was run, and I missed it. I was somewhat bummed about that, but I enjoy all the Indy drama, so I thought I’d ass up and watch some of the second day qualifying. The 500′s website said it would be on ESPN2; no soap. Nor ESPN, nor ABC. I just thought that the Indy 500 had finally fallen from grace with the teevee networks.

Then, a scan around the DirecTV guide showed Indy qualifying on some channel called VS, DirecTV channel 603. Never heard of VS; had no idea we even got it. I’m watching it now. Hmm, Uncle Google reveals that VS is the network formerly known as the Outdoor Life Network.

OK, then.

-k-

Refurbed

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Last weekend, in a fit of tbbs WorldHQ tidying, defenestration, and spontaneous combustion abatement, I became distressed at the state of our remote controls for our various home entertainment devices.

I’ll say first that MLB and I don’t have a huge array of devices to control; our home entertainment stack consists of a Sharp Aquos TV, a DirecTV tuner/DVR combo, a slimline Sony DVD player, and a JVC Sirius satellite radio tuner. Each of these has a remote control device. We also have a Sony big-button “universal remote” that isn’t, well, universal. Perhaps Sony defines universal in a more restrictive manner than I do.

Anyhow, with this array of remotes, we’ve observed the following:

  1. The TV remote can operate the TV and most of the DirecTV tuner. It can not, however, pause live TV.
  2. The Sony universal remote can operate the TV and some of the satellite tuner. It can’t pause live TV either.
  3. The remote for the DirecTV tuner is nearly 9 years old, some of its buttons stick; the only one which has consistently functioned is the pause live TV button.
  4. The DVD and Sirius remotes do a credible job on their specific devices.

You can see where I’m going with this, right? We need the DirecTV remote for the pause functionality, and at least one of the TV/”Universal” ones handy to run everything else. One of them has invariably fallen under the table between our chairs, and it falls to me to curse while I retrieve the wayward device.

Last weekend’s cleaning extravaganza was powered by Shiner, so I was in a relaxed and receptive mood when I visited Amazon in search of Daily Deals. To my surprise, the Logitech Harmony 890 was available; a refurbished model could be had for $125 or so. I’d never bought a refurbished anything, so I went off in search of new. Oh, they were available all right, from $250-$325, depending on vendor. Logitech has an exhaustive database of devices the 890 can control out of the box; all our stuff was there, and I clicked “Buy Now” for the refurbished model.

The remote and its charging cradle arrived mid-week; a day of charging up, followed by the installation and upgrade of the 890′s programming software on the Mac laptop, connecting the the 890 to the Mac via USB, knuckling in the device names and model numbers was followed by the 890′s display menu showing Watch TV and Play DVD. And, what a treat. Pressing Watch TV turned on the TV, satellite tuner; beautiful. All the buttons on the 890 did the expected thing. Still no pause live TV; crap. The buttons on the 890 are somewhat smallish for an old guy like me. I adjusted my bifocals, and tried the one labelled pause. Duh. Live TV stopped in its tracks. What a device!

Today, I got the Sirius tuner added to the devices on the remote, and I’m pleased with the results. And there’s now ample room for my netbook on my table, with the 5 other remotes now stored out of the way. MLB even likes it, in spite of her aversion to gadgets.

-k-

RIP, James Whitmore

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James Whitmore, stage, screen and TV actor, has passed away at age 87.

I am always somewhat disconcerted when I pay tribute to those such as James Whitmore; invariably, their careers spanned far beyond the limits of my narrow world view.

I’m no movie buff, and heaven knows that live theater is far outside my sphere. I’m Joe Sixpack, remote in hand, who remembers old black and white episodes of Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, and other such shows that were a staple. And that’s how I remember James Whitmore.

I looked up his filmography, and realized that I’ve missed most of his acting performances. Should that disqualify me from commenting on his passing? Far from it, as I see it; he was an actor whose performances were memorable, even on the small TV screens of my youth.

Thanks, James, for the least of your performances. Those were the ones I saw through the limited lens of teevee.

-k-

RIP, Patrick McGoohan

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Patrick McGoohan, of Secret Agent and The Prisoner fame, has passed away at age 80.

I was a Secret Agent fan back in my long, long ago youthful years. I’ve never watched The Prisoner, however. Coincidentally, I read some chatter about The Prisoner in my FriendFeed channel earlier in the month. This series is 17 episodes in all; the people chatting about it loved the show.

I think I owe myself a trip to Amazon to acquire the DVD set.

-k-

RIP, Ricardo Montalban

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Ricardo Montalban, silver screen and teevee actor, has passed away at age 88. Frankly, the Fantasy Island fanfare didn’t impress me overly in its heyday. To me, the phrase Fine Corinthian Leather, from the car ads, endeared him forever.

I always have trouble writing these RIP posts; I remember a man with a life, love, and an entertainment career that started 60+ years ago by a single phrase that has stuck with me. In reading the stories about his passing, I read this little snippet, about his thoughts on Fantasy Island:

“What is appealing is the idea of attaining the unattainable and learning from it. Once you obtain a fantasy, it becomes a reality, and that reality is not as exciting as your fantasy. Through the fantasies you learn to appreciate your own realities.”

Lotta’ meaning there.

RIP, Señor Montalban.

-k-

Short Week Ahead

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One of my favorite weeks of the year looms on the horizon: Thanksgiving week. I’ve taken off the post T-day Friday for more than 25 years; at that time, I was an itinerant computer systems installer, and the PTDF was spent, ahem, doing paperwork, as official timesheets will show. Truth is, all the paperwork that was involved then centered around the intact removal of labels from bottles of Rhinelander long necks. Those little misclassifications of time spent bothered me after the first year or two, and so my status went to officially off.

The turkey is purchased, we have ample supplies for the smoke pit, the menu has been written. Three days of clock-punching and server wrangling remain. Then we put the bird in the smoker, whomp up the side dishes, and give thanks for being richly blessed.

Wednesday night, we’ll have what is a new Thanksgiving ritual; watching the WKRP episode wherein the misguided station management pushed live turkeys from a helicopter onto the unsuspecting shopping mall patrons below. I think that’s the only episode we’ve watched out of that DVD collection.

Which reminds me, I’ve gotta hunt up that DVD, so all can be in readiness, and we can hear yet again that immortal line:

The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement.

-k-