Cheers, Borrrrrris!

Happy b-day to one creeeeeeeeeepy dude.


If you have some free time (or free DVR space), check out TCM today for tons of Karloff flix (The Lost Patrol, The Walking Dead, West Of Shanghai, You'll Find Out, Isle Of The Dead, The Body Snatcher, Bedlam, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, The Terror).

Obviously a few of these have ...already played this morning, but maybe you can time-travel and you're just keeping it a secret from us all. Dunno.

Those Val Lewton (RKO) ones are some very cool films (Body Snatcher, Isle/Dead, Bedlam). Or pull out some classic Universal Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, or The Mummy, if ya have them. Probably the most famous (mainstream) of his movies.

Kinda makes ya wanna dig up that old box of CHILL stuff, right? Who knows what else you might unearth...

pants = soiled

Oh BTW, HBD2 Sara Karloff (his daughter) too! Pretty cool dualie celebration, right there.

+1 Flaming Flameburst Sword of Fiery Flameness

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"Let's fire up the Quattro!" - finally on my US telly!

Well, well, well...it was pretty late last night when I awoke on the floor of my (just barely) 3 year old daughter's room. See, after the tooth-brushing, story-telling, and book-reading activities are finished, she often requests either me or my wife to "lay down on the floor" for a few minutes at bedtime. Well, when I sign up for the job, I quite frequently fall waaaaaaay asleep there. Nice, eh?

Anyway, last night I woke up at about 1 am or so and decided I was sorta awake again, having slept there on the floor for a good 3-1/2 hours or so. So I mosied on down the stairs to the great room and switched on the TV to help clear out a little of my 99% full DVR. I know, I know...I have a slight packrat issue with my recordings. I'm working on it.

Anyway, after a few old episodes of The Office (US version). The Superbowl night episode, which was a full 1-hour ep, got cut short, thanks to post-game ramblings and interviews, so seeing how my DVR doesn't really care about timing, I missed the freakin' ending of the episode....ugh.

So, I switch over to OnDemand (Comcast cable's service of past episodes, movies, specials, etc) and looked for the episode I was just watching to see if I could catch the ending there. It wasn't a choice. The series is there, but not that particular episode. Bugger!

However....as I paged thru the other choices there, I see Ashes to Ashes...WTF!?!?!?!?


Man, I have been pining for this show to cross the pond ever since it was launched in the UK last year. I absolutely loved it's predecessor Life on Mars and was so looking forward to the followup series. As with most BBC/UK shows, we're getting Ashes to Ashes quite a bit later over here on BBC America. LoM was the same way, just like Robin Hood, Primeval, Doctor Who, Torchwood, etc.

And now it's here too! Well, actually it's apparently been here for a few weeks. There are 4 episodes available via OnDemand, and it's being run on BBC America on Saturday nights at 9pm (EST).

Ok, so why does this matter to a blog entitled Back in '81 you ask? Well, it's set in 1981, for Gorf's sake!


Beyond that simplistic reason, it's a show that really does throw you back to that timeframe, and as you might guess from my most recent Birthday Party pics, I kinda like the '80s.

They really seem to have nailed the era (specifically the early 80's), so far at least, in the same manner as the completely nailed the early 70's in Life on Mars. Sure, there are some little discrepancies you can find here and there. For example one that is called out in the Wikipedia article, the Quattro is a 1983 model, and it's right-hand-drive which wasn't available there, then. But really, if that blows the imagery for you I would have to say that you're not giving it a fair shake.

Speaking of "giving something a fair shake", in regards to the US version of Life on Mars, I myself have yet to give it it's due. I have watched maybe 20 minutes or so of one episode, and just recorded the rest, figuring I would get around to watching them someday. Of course decisions like this are partially responsible for my DVR bulging at 99%. I think I am being a bit prejudiced toward the US version, because I loved the UK version so much that I fear I will be disappointed in a remake so soon. The opposite goes for the The Office. I saw the US version first, and now view the UK version inferior. I know that others disagree, but that's ok.

Back to A2A, most of the LoM cast returns, including the trio of Gene Hunt, Ray Carling, and Chris Skelton.


Honestly, Gene Hunt is more than enough to bring me back to this show every week. He's totally rad, dude!


The lead character Alex Drake is played by Keeley Hawes, who you may recognize as Zoe Reynolds from MI-5 (or Spooks in the UK), another BBC show that I dug (at least the first couple seasons).

Anyway, here's a few goodies from the first episode:

Alex: "You're taller than I imagined."
Gene: "I'm bigger in every department."

Suspect being questioned: "You're living in a fantasy world, Mr Hunt."

Alex: "Can you get me a change of clothes? I would like to change out of red before Chris de Burgh writes a song about me."

Gene: "Uniform you're the C Team; DI Drake you lead the B Team; I'm the A Team."
Alex: "God have mercy."

Alex: "There's nothing on this hard-drive but the time and date."
Gene: "Pong, I've got Pong."


Ah well, one episode down, only 53 minutes into this show, but I must say so far "It's totally awesome!"

Pretty Frakkin' Funny (a quick BSG s1-4 video recap)

I saw these vids posted over at Topless Robot. That post credits TOYSREVIL, where a 3rd vid is posted (an extended trailer for the season 4.5). They are most likely posted in a trazillion other places too, but anyway here they are again, from YouTube:

Part 1:



with these these kooky narrations:

(1:33) - "they frak cylon-style and her spine lights up"
(2:24) - "Starbuck and Apollo like each other so they beat each other up"
(5:31) - "Apollo just gets fat, waiting for something to happen"


Part 2:



with these gems:

(0:37) - "she spends alot of time painting and acting bitchy"
(0:51) - "Chief thinks Cally off'd herself, so he shaves his head"
(3:43) - "they're BFF so Adama gets mad...and sad"
(3:47) - Apollo grows a pair"
(4:42) - "two knuckledraggers"

In summary:
(4:51) - "What the frak?!?!?"


I can't wait for season 4.5, but my poor, overworked, eternally-96%-full DVR sure can.

"Legend of the Seeker" (TV series)...will it suck or will it *not* suck?

So, I've been searching for this series for my DVR (my poor DVR, gets abused so badly), under the title "Wizard's First Rule" (yeah, the book series "The Sword of Truth" by Terry Goodkind).

See, back a few months, an issue of Sci-Fi magazine had a rundown of all the new TV series and such that were sci-fi/fantasy/etc based, and this one was in it.

However, I never could find the darn thing, and it turns out that they have decided to go with a different title for the show, some say to avoid any issues with the whole wizard/witchcraft thing...whatever....sounds like a weak excuse.

At any rate, I finally saw this name change today, so I searched the listings for it, and it's coming soon...Nov 1st and 2nd, I gather.

It's supposedly exec. produced by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Darkman, Spiderman,...Xena?). Turns out both Sam and Bruce Campbell (childhood buds) were born and raised in Royal Oak, MI...just a skip and a jump down the road from me here....cool.

Here's a couple links to some previews of it, if you're interested and have not seen them yet:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1914861/legend_of_the_seeker_s_brutal_death_scene/

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1910152/legend_of_the_seeker_exclusive_trailer/


And here's a rundown of the upcoming eps (at least according to wiki...which of course is gospel, right?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Legend_of_the_Seeker_episodes


Oh heck, while I'm at it, here's the freakin main site for the darn thing...jeesh!:

http://www.legendoftheseeker.com/


Now, some people like the books, some people hate the books...per usual in most of these cases. I have not read them at all before, so I have no judgment on them....yet. I always stopped at the shelf and gave them a quick backcover read, but never pulled the trigger on them. I have so many books that I'm halfway thru or am wanting to start, that I had no room for them in my Barnes&Noble bag.

I look at it like this: "hey, it's *Sword and Sorcery* (D&D-ish) TV....so I'm gonna watch it no matter if it sucks or does not suck."


I have no idea if this will suck or not, but I'm gonna give it a whirl regardless. I've watched (and still do watch) plenty of shows that suck...cuz sometimes things that suck are cool....ha!

"Bad as in *good*? or bad as in *bad*?"