The Office starts back up tonight on NBC @ 9/8c. Don’t pretend you didn’t tear up at this ending …
Filed under: Comedy, NBC, Sitcoms, The Office
July 11, 2007 • 7:44 am 4
Review: WKRP Season One
When it arrived in the mail I was immediately impressed. The packaging from the inside out was extremely well designed. I especially loved how the disc’s themselves were little records. Very nice touch.
Having never seen an episode before, I really had no idea what to expect. This series began in 1978, so I was only three years old when it came out. I did not expect to appreciate the humor fully due to my age gap—and I was pretty on in my assumption.
The show begins with Arthur “Big Guy” Carlson hiring Andy Travis (apparently the role model for Matthew Mcconaughey), to be the program director and try to turn this radio station back into the black. Andy quickly changes the format to Rock and Roll and the rest of the show chronicles the stations many hiccups along the way.
With the exception of Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson), I found myself enjoying the characters at the end. Whether it was Herbs relentless pursuit of Jennifer, or Venus Flytrap and Dr. Johnny Fever getting drunk on the air, or Bailey Quarters running into the boys room to stop a fight between two mascots—they all had their charm. The winner of the prestigious Buckeye Newshawk Award, Les Nessman, was my personal favorite. In my opinion he nailed his role and always had me laughing with a hiss.
The main issue with this release seems to be around the fact that they didn’t gain the rights to much of the original music in the show, so they replaced it with some generic music. There are many times you can see obvious edits, and from what I hear there are even memorable scenes cut out because they relied so much on the music of the time.That was a disappointment since I didn’t get the full experience, but I really have a feeling that they will work out this music rights issue and re-release another DVD set in the near future. I’d love to see that version, and how much of a difference it makes.
I’m still happy that I have finally seen at least this first season. It did nothing but help in my current catchup with culture project. I still have to say that it just wasn’t my style. I’m pretty sure that I missed out on a lot of the humor due to the fact that I was watching it almost 30 years out of context. That said, I wouldn’t be opposed to watching Season Two to see how it progresses.
May 2, 2007 • 3:49 pm 5
Review Me
Well, sometimes you jump on a fishing boat and throw out a line with no intention of catching a fish, only a nap. And sometimes, while you’re sleeping, you catch a whopper.
Today is such a day. Out of the blue I received an email from a marketing company for the new WKRP in Cincinnati DVD set that has just come out. Apparently, because of my interest in NewsRadio, they thought I might be interested in this show, and possibly blog my review of their product. Oh, did I mention that they are sending me the set free for review? There were no promises made for a favorable review, just here it is, let the world know what you think.
I can get on board with that. As a matter of fact, if ANYBODY has ANYTHING they would like me to review and is willing to send me the product free for my review, I promise an honest review of said product on this blog, which has a viewing audience of well over 100 people a day. 
So what say you? Got something for me? Apple?
January 8, 2007 • 9:28 am 2
Alien Life Form
September 15, 2006 • 8:44 am 3
Friday Five
With all the talk about News Radio earlier, here are my five favorite sitcoms.
1. News Radio (1995-1999 / NBC)
2. Seinfeld (1989-1998 / NBC)
3. Home Improvement (1991-1999 / ABC)
4. Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005 / CBS)
5. The Office (2005-Present / NBC)
Filed under: Comedy, Friday Five, Sitcoms
September 7, 2006 • 7:45 am 2
News Radio
Way before The Office there was News Radio, a workplace comedy that had an outstanding cast and amazing comedic timing. It lasted only a mere 5 years, 1995-1999, cut short in the middle of it’s prime due to the untimely death of Phil Hartman.
The series is set at WNYX, a fictional news radio station in New York City populated by an eccentric station owner and staff. Similar to WKRP in Cincinnati, the show begins with the arrival of a new news director, level-headed Dave Nelson (Dave Foley), fresh from the heartland. While Dave turns out to be less naive than his youthful appearance suggests, he never fully gains control of his unruly co-workers.
I started watching this in syndication on my lunch breaks when I started my first job after college. I think I might have seen every episode. But as with all channels, they switched eventually to another show for that time slot and I haven’t seen an episode since. That was until last night. Yesterday I received a birthday gift of the first two seasons on DVD and, instead of waiting to watch them with Jason on our lunch break, I popped a disk in and watched a couple episodes. Man do I love that show!
You can see much of the cast on television still today on shows such as Celebrity Poker, Less Than Perfect, ER, Fear Factor, West Wing, and CSI: Miami.
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