Sacre Bleu! A&E Bets Ze Farm on Napoleon

I really feel for A&E. They’ve got the highest of goals and the best of intentions, but current events have turned their timing to shit. Let’s face it, it’s not the greatest time to be celebrating something French, namely Napoleon, with an expensive four-hour miniseries. Merde!

It’s kind of tough in general being A&E these days. Numbers are down, and even their signature series Biography isn’t the splash it used to be. There’s a very simple explanation for their plight, and it’s just a few words: Law & Order. Just as NBC worships at the altar of Dick Wolf and knows the power of the franchise, the reruns of L&O were the fuel that propelled A&E into cable prominence not so very long ago.

But those days are gone. After a bidding coup several years ago, A&E lost the series to TNT, which now has the rights to all past seasons as well as new ones for the next ten years. Just surely as A&E saw ratings for Biography reach the cable stratosphere – heck, they used to get 2 ratings for bios on Clara Bow! – deep down they had to know that they got those numbers thanks to the sturdy, predictable, and stellar performance of L&O. And also as predictably, TNT is back on top these days due in large measure to liberal scheduling of L&O in daytime, access and all over prime. TV people love to talk about the halo effect, and I’ve never seen a better example than what L&O can do to anybody’s schedule. (Interestingly, it’s not happening yet at all for TNN and their CSI reruns, which I’m convinced nobody even knows they’re running, but that’s another problem.)

Don’t get me started on Law & Order. I know everybody thinks it’s brilliant or something, but my contention is that it’s just the opposite: it’s just good enough, and that’s what keeps it chugging along, on NBC and in those omnipresent reruns. Too intricate and you lose folks on the backend, and that’s clearly not happening. The rerun world is littered with the corpses of intelligent shows that last about as long as goldfish out of water when they ‘re called upon to do five-a-week duty off-network. It’s the earnest and simple series bird that gets the worm in Repeat Land, and that’s the truth.

But I digress. Back to Napoleon. A&E’s fighting the good fight, certainly, with their high-minded choices for originals, but combined with the depressed ratings, things don’t look too promising for the little emperor. Number one strike is that I just don’t think American viewers give a darn about European history, except for a very few exceptions that I can’t even think of. After almost 25 years programming movies on TV, I can tell you that the last movie I’d want to put anywhere it mattered would be something French, or with a bunch of European actors, or…well, you get the idea. Hey, I’m no xenophobe, this is just the TV programmer in me talking, you understand.

This Napoleon, at forty million dollars (Euros? Francs?) the most expensive European TV production ever (so they claim), is bound to look great at least, so that’s something. And there are a few familiar faces like John Malkovich, Isabella Rossellini, Anouk Aimee (familiar? Who am I kidding?), and Toby Stevens (the villain in the last James Bond movie) on hand, which is also good. Ah, and Gerard Depardieu , whom American producers seem at last to realize isn’t going to break through over here in the States, is also around as Napoleon’s head of security Joseph Fouche. At least we won’t have the disadvantage of feeling a weird disconnect with the casting of Napoleon, as did many viewers in France. Christian Clavier is known over there primarily as a comedic actor, and I gather it was a bit of a stretch for them to imagine him as the most formidable of all French historical figures. It’s on a somewhat grander scale of disbelief than what we faced when Robin Williams played a meek freak store clerk in One Hour Photo, for instance, and probably it won’t matter at all to us. Really, the man playing the man with the hand in his jacket is just one of the factors that will make or break this miniseries for A&E, and if I were a betting woman, I’d take the second option.

Bonne chance, A&E! It’s not easy trying to bring culture to the American viewing public. You’ve got your travail cut out for you.


I wasn’t kidding about them betting the farm on Napoleon. Here’s the schedule:

Napoleon, Part 1 premieres tonight, Tuesday 4/8 at 8p – 10p, with encores at 10p – 12am, 12a – 2a, 2a – 4a, and again the next morning at 8a – 10a and 2p – 4p.

Napoleon, Part 2 premieres tomorrow night, Wednesday 4/9, at 8p – 10p, with the same replay pattern.

Both parts will air together on Friday, 4/11 from 8p – 12a, on Saturday, 4/12 from 12m – 4am, and again on Sunday, 4/20 from 12n – 4pm.


Check out A&E’s website for more information on Napoleon.

If you parlez vous the Francais, here’s a great site on the miniseries, too.

And if you need a good primer on all things Napoleon, check out this nifty and extensive site called The Napoleonic Guide. Very informative!

 
Going Into Orbitz

Have you caught the new Orbitz travel company TV ads? They're a direct steal from the distinctive Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series like Thunderbirds, Supercar, or Captain Scarlet, and they're not bad. Pretty cute, in fact. However, I'm amazed that, in this press release from Orbitz, there is nary a mention of the homage, even though the pic they use could be right out of Thunderbirds, which is airing these days on TechTV. If you aren't familiar with the show, and have the mistaken impression that Orbitz invented this art form, check it out.

Seems to me it's pretty ballsy -- and more than a little stupid -- to go out there acting like you invented this stuff. There's a huge fanbase out there for all things Anderson, and the arrogance shown by Orbitz -- clearly playing off the appeal of Thunderbirds while claiming originality -- is unnecessary. I'm sure that the producers behind the campaign knew what they were doing, and who they were copying; too bad Orbitz and their P.R. department couldn't give credit where credit is certainly due.

Here's a great Gerry Anderson Thunderbirds site from the BBC.

Fanderson, a site devoted to Gerry Anderson's entire oeuvre.

TV Century 21, another informative Gerry Anderson tribute site.

 
Trigger Happy TV’ s Target: Your Funnybone


The unique British hidden camera show Trigger Happy TV is back with brand new episodes starting tonight on Comedy Central, only maybe it’s not going to feel quite so English anymore. This newest batch of programs is being produced in the U.S., a couple of American improv comics have been recruited into the cast, and I’m wondering if the unmistakable Brit penchant for the bizarre and surreal will still seep through. They have a much more innate sense of the absurd than Americans, and for Trigger Happy TV, about which creator Dom Joly has said, “The point is, there is no point,” it’s an absolute must.

What started out back in 1998 as politician-ambush stunts – Irish politico Peter Mandelson being greeted by a Devil and a skeleton bearing “Welcome Prince of Darkness” signs, for one – soon evolved into what made Trigger Happy TV a British sensation: Dom Joly’s eccentric characterizations and public confrontations. Many of the bits are silent visual jokes, like the Spectre of Death creepily watching a group of smokers taking a ciggy break outside their office; others are more verbal, including Joly’s trademark gigantic cellphone-toting boor who carries out his one-sided conversations at full yell.

By far the most British aspect of the show (at least in the previous seasons) is the predilection for dressing up in animal costumes. On THTV, giant squirrels grapple in city parks, giant cats assault suburban garbage cans, giant apes become Vain Gorilla-grams, giant snails hold up traffic as they slither across the road, and, most commonly, giant dogs engage in continuous mafia-hit attacks on each other. It’s definitely a British thing; the only folks in the U.S. who’re into giant animals costumes quite that much are the Furverts aka Furries, curious but benign denizens in the world of sexual deviance who get their kicks from what Mr. Joly sometimes does for a living.

My theory is that the Brits’ love of animal costumes comes from their exposure to the still-lively children’s theatre experience called Pantomine, or Panto. If you remember Monty Python’s skits with the Pantomime Horse as a swinging detective, or the Pantomime Goose who shot Terence Ratigan with a bow and arrow, or the Pantomime Princess Margaret who attacked her dinner tray with a huge bazooka, then you already have a clue as to how deep the Panto waters run over there. The tradition’s alive and well on THTV, and if you just relax a little, you’ll probably learn to enjoy it, too.

This season on American TV (cable, at least) is a good one for the Union Jack. Thanks to HBO and Da Ali G Show, BBC America and The Office, and Comedy Central and Trigger Happy TV, we’re getting a great chance to see what we’ve been missing in the world of cutting-edge comedy, albeit usually a few years late. To those of us who couldn’t imagine life without Monty Python, it’s about time, ducky.

Trigger Happy TV’s new season airs on Monday nights at 10pm, with encores Mondays at 12am, Fridays at 1:30am, Saturdays at 7am and Sundays at 9am. Episodes from previous seasons air Mondays at 10:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., all on Comedy Central.

Check out Trigger Happy TV's official website for more information on the show, and Comedy Central for lots of great videoclips.

 
It’s…Michael Palin’s Travels: Sahara


If you think Reality TV can only mean singing moppets, squabbling relatives or daredevil blockheads, here’s a real eye-opener for you – a reality show with an erudite host, gracious good humor, and an understanding look into a misunderstood part of the world. Thanks go to Bravo cable channel for bringing us the U.S. premiere of Michael Palin’s Travels: Sahara, fifth in the series of his lauded travel specials which began in 1988 with his take on Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. Popularly considered to be the “nicest” member of Monty Python (followed closely behind by Terry Jones), Palin is not only one of the best comic minds we’ve ever had, but also an inveterate traveler with unquenchable curiosity and a knack for making great television, yippee for us.

Weighing in at just four one-hour episodes, MPT: Sahara runs shorter than his other forays – the aforementioned 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle and his Hemingway Adventure – but Palin always manages to get the best out of his subject, and vice versa. No crabby, spoiled tourist he; Palin is the personification of the perfect part-time explorer. Patient, plucky, pleasant and polite, Palin is a wonder to behold. We should all be grateful to have such an amiable and empathetic ambassador-at-large out there in the unknown-to-most-of-us wilderness; one can’t imagine him leaving anywhere without making friends.

Be sure to visit Palin’s own travel website; it has amazing background resources on MPT: Sahara as well as all his other series, including beautiful photographs, well-done interactive maps, and Palin’s own travel tips in case you want to follow in his footsteps. It’s a terrific resource and a stellar example of a website done right. Though all of Palin’s books and videos are offered for sale here, you won’t believe the amount of gratis content available, and how well it’s arranged. Highly recommended!

Even if you’re strictly an armchair traveler like myself, you can’t help but get a frisson of jealousy after watching Palin navigate his adventures, however harrowing and dramatic some of them appear. He’s having a grand time and handles everything like a champ, a genteel one at that, and there could be no more appropriate compliment to his achievements. And if you're ever prone to worry about the state of the world in general, one look at Palin’s sunny countenance should allay your fears. He’s a bit of all right, and we’re lucky to have him out there.

Michael Palin’s Travels: Sahara airs Sunday evenings at 7pm, with an encore at 1am, and then again on Saturday afternoons at 1pm, on Bravo cable channel.

Palin’s Travels is his terrific website.