Spike Spite

Although Spike Lee obviously thinks he’s got a point in believing that TNN’s new moniker Spike is somehow an homage to him -- and so does the court, evidently, having yesterday issued an injunction against Viacom – doesn’t it seem just the height of misplaced vanity?

Granted, Spike Lee does seem to match up with Viacom’s description of their newly-named network: Yes, Lee’s a “contemporary, smart” guy with plenty of “attitude,” that’s true, possibly “aggressive” (ask Viacom’s lawyers!), sometimes “irreverent,” undoubtedly “contemporary” and one could surmise “unapologetically male.” Then again, so is writer/director/actor and equally talented Spike Jonze, of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation fame, to name a few of his projects. If they’re taking names for anybody’s who’s got a case against Viacom, he should get in line, too. Fair’s fair.

And while we’re at it, in his day bandleader Spike Jones was all of the above – and how! -- with an emphasis on the irreverent. Surely his heirs should be wondering about Viacom’s intentions now, too. If the aggressive inventiveness of “Der Fuhrer’s Face” doesn’t quality Spike Jones for a piece of the pie, then there’s just no justice.

Teenage girls and pop culture media scholars would be mightily grieved to have their favorite Spike left out of the fray, vampire Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Surely this pale prince is more than qualified to have a beef with Viacom; he's got loads of attitude, a nice touch of irreverence (as a vampire he really needs it), aggressive (again, to be a good vampire, very necessary), and is, just ask Buffy, unapologetically male. Sounds like a match to me.

Crossing the pond, wouldn’t British comedy landmark Goon Show participant Spike Milligan be a tad bit peeved to be left out of the fun? Unanimously considered to be one of the forefathers of all troupe sketch comedy, Mr. Milligan surely has all the requisite characteristics to demand some reparations from Viacom, too. Don’t think just because he was British that he’d be too polite to ask for proper recompense. Spike TV would be lucky to have half the pluck, daring and absurdity that Mr. Milligan possessed…when he was alive, of course.

I’d also like to extend the invitation to join the lawsuit to all of our four-footed friends with the name Spike, and there are a lot of them from dogs to rabbits to kitty cats and standing in for them all, this adorable echidna from Australia. Further bolstering this little Spike’s case is that echidnas are also known as spiny anteaters, which sounds an awful lot like Spiny Norman, the Monty Python-created giant hedgehog no doubt inspired by – wait for it – Spike Milligan and his comic cavorting with the Goon Show squad. It’s all just a little too cozy for coincidence, eh? Clearly another link in the insidious Spike chain of deception, and let’s also not forget the hundreds and hundreds of fictional characters named Spike from movies and TV – check out IMDB – many of whom were probably plenty contemporary, smart and aggressive, too. Get in line, kids.

Mr. Lee claims that he figured out his persona was being appropriated when some of his pals called him up, surprised to hear that he was starting a network, and what exactly would he be showing, anyway? Well, I’m sure that Billy Bob Delta from rural Mississippi probably got a few calls from his kin when city folk started an airline with his name, and they probably wanted to know where in heck he was flying, too. And there must have been more than a little hubbub when the countless Bens and Jerrys from all around the world found out that somebody was naming an ice cream company after them.

To be completely accurate, the only reason anybody wants to be named Spike in the first place is because of importance in America of the laying of the Golden Spike, commemorating the completion of the transcontinental railroad back in May of 1869. That particular Spike is familiar to any student who stayed awake during history class, and you couldn’t get any more aggressive, smart, and unapologetically male than an occasion when dozens of tough railroad men got together to pound that thing into the ground outside Promontory, Utah.

Spikes of the world, unite! Why should Spike Lee get all the glory for battling Goliath Viacom with a ridiculous lawsuit? Don’t shed any tears for Viacom, that’s for sure, but a silly case is well…a silly case.

A hearing is scheduled for June 23rd, but that puts rather a wrench into Viacom’s plan to inaugurate their new network on June 16th, doesn’t it? It looks like TNN will stay that way a little while longer, at least. I wrote about the whole Spike name change on Friday, April 18th, so take a look in the archives if you missed it.


If you were one of the kids who didn't stay awake during history class, visit this site to learn about the original Golden Spike, and if you're on a road trip, visit the Golden Spike National Park!

For more on Spike, the adorable echidna from Australia, check out this site!

 
The Word's Getting Out on Ali G

Those of us who've been loving Sacha Baron Cohen's Da Ali G Show on HBO are happy to see appreciation growing for him, including this recent column in Reason Magazine which you can read here. It's a nice overview of what makes Ali G so special, and recommended reading for anybody who's still on the fence about this ingenious comic character, or anybody who's already crazy about him.

Be sure to check out HBO's Ali G website, since the original six episodes are still in frequent rotation. Click on the Full Schedule link for the latest airtimes. Boyakasha!

 
Movies Are Your Best Entertainment –

At least tonight on TV they are. Once again I’m recommending that you check out the trio of Indian movies on TCM beginning with Rangeela at 8pm. Both this film and Dil Chahta Hai which follows will be a chance for you to catch heartthrob Aamir Khan (Lagaan) in action, and again I also suggest recording the movies for later viewing.

If spurts and splatter are more your style, you might want to check out IFC’s mini-horror festival starting with their documentary American Nightmare at 8pm. It’s a ninety-minute look back at the bloody (fake, of course, we hope) history of the chiefly low-budget, completely crazy world of independent horror films. Immediately following is another documentary, Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror from 1991, chronicling the oeuvre of famed Italian cult horror director Argento. And if all that puts you in the mood to see an actual movie, there’s Dead Alive aka Braindead at 10:30pm, Peter Jackson’s 1992 ultra-gory treat about a woman whose unfortunate encounter with a Sumatran rat leads to zombies galore. If you only know Jackson from the Rings movies, take a look at one of one of the films that had buffs crowing his virtues long before Hollywood – or Middle Earth – came a’calling.

For those of you who like your horrors closer to home, Court TV presents their documentary Court TV Investigates: The Laci Peterson Murder. Court TV really knows their stuff and has been following this case since the beginning, so this should be an intelligent hour and devoid of unseemly hype that seems inevitable with a murder like this one. Catherine Crier hosts; she’s one of the cadre of Court TV’s uniformly excellent on-air personalities, along with the terrific Nancy Grace, Lisa Bloom, Rikki Klieman and the male contingent of James Curtis and Fred Graham. Actually, there isn’t much I don’t like about Court TV. Their on-the-spot correspondents are also exceptional, especially the sharp Beth Karas who I liked a lot during last year’s Danielle Van Damm trial. More on Court TV another time, but if you want the latest on the sad and creepy Peterson situation, tune in tonight at 10pm.

Two more small viewing possibilities for tonight: Comedy Central has an hour of Primetime Glick in its new timeslot Thursdays at 8pm, and for laughs this certainly is the way to go. And if all this other stuff is just too much excitement for you, tune into HGTV at 10pm for two episodes of their incredibly boring yet curiously fascinating House Hunters. It’s the show where they follow around people and a real estate agent as they search for the perfect domicile. I wrote about this back on January 27th – check out the archives at the bottom of the page to get to the original article – and I think I said it all then. Suggesting that people watching this is like selling tickets to watch paint dry, and yet…and yet, I find myself again and again flipping to it and being sucked into its languor-ridden vortex. Go forth if you dare!

Check out IFC's webpage for their complete schedule.

Here's the homepage for HGTV's soporific yet sublime House Hunters.

And this is Court TV\'s site for their Laci Peterson special. Actually, their whole website is full of great features, so take some time to explore it.

 
I Almost Forgot!

-- to tell you not to forget to watch Keen Eddie tonight at 9pm on Fox. There's a puff piece on it in next week's TV Guide, and here's hoping that the show lasts that long! Don't miss it! I wrote more about it last Wednesday, so check it out if you need convincing.

 
May The Ground Force Be With You


It’s always been fairly simple to be an armchair traveler (just take to your local library), but thanks to TV, these days it’s even easier – if less productive -- to be an armchair gardener, what with the plethora of gardening shows available on cable. HGTV is king of the crop, with a couple of dozen regularly scheduled series, and DIY has a handful of its own, but no show on either of these homegrown networks has come even close to creating the kind of furor that sprang up around the BBC’s landmark series Ground Force, which we can see here on BBC America.

Ground Force, in case you’ve never seen it, is the originator of the concept copied by HGTV’s much less charismatic Surprise Gardener; that is, a group of garden experts secretly go into somebody’s home yard and transform it into a thing of beauty in a couple of days and with a minimal outlay of cash. An absolute runaway hit in Britain, Ground Force made instant celebrities of its team of experts, and was one of shows whose popularity triggered the avalanche of reality-type programming which swept onto the BBC’s schedule, prompting many critics and government officials to decry the loss of more traditional drama and other trademark BBC fare. From Nigella Lawson to Changing Rooms to the phenomenon that is Ground Force, the Brits were a couple of years ahead of us in succumbing to the easy ratings and incredible public acceptance and hunger for what might best be called “personality television.” While it’s not the equal in viciousness or greed to the more base reality shows that we’re currently choking on over here, both genres work on and appeal to the same basic part of the audience’s psyche.

But if TV is going to hell in a handbasket, you couldn’t find a nicer bunch of folks to carry the load than the gang on Ground Force. There’s Alan Titchmarsh, the sunny master gardener and spiritual leader of the Force, whose expertise, ability to put people at ease, and amusing demeanor always make the daunting jobs come out right. Suspender-wearing (usually) Tommy Walsh is the brawn of the bunch, the cheerful fellow with the building background who lays the decking and pours the concrete and does everything except the actual planting. And then…ah, then there’s Charlie, Charlie Dimmock, who single-handedly, or rather, double-breastedly, sent the show’s fame into the stratosphere.

Whatever possessed the strawberry blonde Ms. Dimmock, whose credentials as a water garden expert are tip-top, to doff her brassiere and don a tight T-shirt…well, that's the stuff of which dreams and careers are made. Charlie-mania consumed the country. Men who never gave a second glance to a daisy or their neighbor’s agapanthus were suddenly tuning into see Charlie’s perky nipples peeking through the morning dawn in some lucky homeowner’s backyard. Now, here in the U.S., we tend to go ga-ga over ta-tas that are oversized. In the UK they’re a more modest lot; Charlie’s 34 Bs were more than sufficient to send the male population over the moon, and in the process, turn Ground Force into a legend. Charlie’s since become a semi-regular on the CBS Morning Show here, but of course it just isn’t the same.

Ground Force is great gardening too, and you won’t believe what this trio (along with an occasional assist from friends and neighbors) can accomplish in a mere two days, and many of them damp and downright rainy at that. What I like most about the show, in addition to the easy camaraderie between the GF team (and if it’s faked, at least they’re damned consistent with the charade), are the people whose gardens are transformed. Although they’ve done some celebrities like Nelson Mandela and a NYC garden for Bette Midler, the most appealing moments are when some sweet English old lady gets the garden of her dreams, or a couple get the gang to create a paved garden for their son with muscular dystrophy, so he can stroll in his wheelchair, or when just regular folks with garden space that makes most of our suburban plots look like the Great Plains end up with something magical in their backyards.

That’s what’s so special about Ground Force, and you won’t find the same kind of emotion of HGTV’s knock-off version Surprise Gardener, nor on any of their other myriad garden shows. The closest thing they’ve got to the combination of expertise and personality is on Gardening by the Yard; host Paul James has a friendly, goofy charm that entertains as well as enlightens. I don’t doubt that a lot of the hosts and garden experts on the other HGTV shows are great people, too, but that elusive likeability factor and true charisma are hard to find.

But back to Ground Force. What makes today somewhat important to American GF fans is that tonight on BBC America they will premiere the first show of the 2003 season, and that means Alan Titchmarsh has left the building. He announced last year that he would be leaving the show to regroup and ultimately will be starting a new show of his own soon, but the Ground Force presses on, with new cast member Kirsty King (former associate producer of the show) coming in to fill in the ranks. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics change -- Titchmarsh was definitely the group’s guru; will La Dimmock seize the reins, or will Tommy Walsh’s easygoing strength rule the roost?

Lest you fear you’ll never be able to enjoy Titchmarsh’s considerable contributions, rest assured that BBC America runs Ground Force a lot, and while the new episodes will be premiered on Tuesdays at 9pm (with encores) each week, the other GH timeslots will be filled with episodes from previous seasons.

I think the show is captivating and inspirational. Add to that the delightful musical score as supplied by the UK’s Blackdyke brass band and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more enjoyable half-hour on TV, even if none of your own fingers are the slightest bit green.

Ground Force’s 2003 season begins tonight on BBC America at 9pm, and continues on Tuesdays. Check out the BBC America Ground Force website for the complete schedule of all airtimes, because it runs all over the place.


FYI, BBC America has another gardening show, Homefront in the Garden, which is ultra-sleek, hyper-modern and I think pretty affected, but you might like it. Check it out here!


Listen to the Ground Force theme song!


Here’s a wonderful, effusive and chockful-of-pictures site in praise of Charlie Dimmock!


And check out this profile of Charlie from her hometown of Romsey newspaper….


And for something ridiculous, investigate the mysterious Virgin Mary statue that looks like Charlie.


And for something even more ridiculous, morph Charlie’s face, if you dare!

 
A Little Bit of Trivia on Goodness Gracious Me


In my previous posting on this British sketch show (which Trio is featuring this month), I neglected to mention the fascinating genesis of the show. The title Goodness Gracious Me is taken from a song of the same name from the Peter Sellers’ movie The Millionairess, in which he played in Indian doctor. Seller was known for his amazing accents, of course, and played Indians three times in movies, in the aforementioned The Millionairess, the nutty The Party, and in a hilarious uncredited role in the last Hope/Crosby buddy pic The Road to Hong Kong. It was an impersonation at which he excelled, however politically incorrect it might appear almost forty years later. In addition, the live comedy stage show that begat Goodness Gracious Me was called Peter Sellers Is Dead, reflecting the authentic performers view that the time had come for Indians to create their own comic characters. Which they did.

Another distinctly British aspect of the show is that the entire troupe did a live stage show tour around Britain of Goodness Gracious Me, to much acclaim. Imagine if the cast of Friends took it on the road…or Will and Grace et al came to a theater near you? It’s such an interesting concept and not unknown over there at all. There’s much less motivation to do anything like that when you’re getting paid the kind of salaries sitcom performers make over here, it would appear. It’s a cute notion, though!

Croc Hunter Live – The Morning After

Animal Planet’s Crocodile Hunter Live went off with nary a visible hitch last night. Although they had to vamp a little for time at the end (but certainly did it as well as news anchors who do it all the time), it was a fun show and had its exciting moments as Irwin and crew moved three crocs to new digs at the zoo. At the beginning Steve announced that Terri and Bindi had to fly off to Oregon the day before – Terri’s father had suffered a heart attack – and during a live phone call to his wife and daughter it was evident what a genuine human being the Croc Hunter really is. It was pretty darn sweet. If you’re looking for a cool, dispassionate personality, Steve Irwin isn’t your man, but if you value zeal, intelligence and heart, tune in the rest of the week!

 
Goodness Gracious Me It's Croc Hunter Live!


Your sofa is definitely the place to be tonight, as a couple of cable networks bring us some new and wonderful things to watch. Animal Planet kicks their traditional Croc Week up a notch with a five-night stunt of Crocodile Hunter Live!, two hours each night of the ebullient Steve Irwin and his trademark larger-than-life exploits. It looks like tonight’s episode is going to contain a lot of live footage, then it appears as though the rest of the week will just be live inserts, but they’ll be inside brand-new episodes and that’s always a treat in itself.

Steve and the gang at Australia Zoo will be relocating some crabby crocodiles to their new enclosure this evening, and subsequent adventures include brushes with an amazing white crocodile, encounters with whale sharks (the largest fishes in the world), more Australian crocs and finally a special visit to Belize in search of their indigenous croc. I’ve heard folks pooh-pooh Irwin’s enthusiasm and wonder if he’s for real, but if it’s an act he’s better at it than anybody I’ve ever seen. You just can’t fake that kind of devotion and gusto, and I can’t think of a better role model from whom young people could learn respect and fascination with the animal world.

Steve Irwin is such a genuine and unique personality that you’d be tempted to call him inimitable, but of course he’s one of most imitated – or should I say mimicked – celebrities out there. Is there anybody who hasn’t cranked up their own Aussie accent and had a go at his trademark “Danger!” or “Crikey!” exclamations? I’ve liked him from the start, and even if you may have burned out on him a while ago, come on back and see just how terrific he still is. And he’s a package deal, too, so you can get a look how his little daughter Bindi is growing up, and reacquaint yourself with his equally fearless and knowledgeable wife Terri. This is one family to tell the kids about, and if I had any I’d be sure they were watching Crocodile Hunter Live! all week, and I’d be right there with ‘em.

Extra Bonus! Australia’s Own Dame Edna Everage will make an appearance on Thursday’s show; don’t miss it! If you already don’t know who she is, she’s comedian Barrie Humphrie’s alter ego, a hilariously outrageous drag comedy character. To see more of Dame Edna in action, tune into Trio all this month; they’re featuring her weeknights at 8pm.

And speaking of Trio, their June Uncensored Comedy festival is in full swing, and they’re doing the best they can with what they’ve got. There’s some animation (both series and shorts), a little Amos & Andy (the documentary about the controversy but unfortunately not any of the TV series but only the feature film from 1930), Lenny Bruce, Sandra Bernhard, Jackie Mason, Mort Sahl – all the usual suspects. A couple of highlights: the film of Daniel Hoch’s one-man-play Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop, and the movie version of Trevor Griffith’s creepy play The Comedians, a great look into the depths of the comic mind and ultimately anything but funny. Also featured in the festival is one thing that hasn’t been widely seen over here, the British sketch show Goodness Gracious Me; Trio will be running the first five episodes of the show, which premiered in the UK in 1998.

Featuring a cast of incredibly gifted Indian actors and actresses, Goodness Gracious Me spoofed the growing phenomenon of Indians immigrating to the UK and their acculturation into Brit life. What made this show unique was its spot-on skewering of Indian peculiarities and what made it popular was a collection of comedic characters which soon became favorites of viewers at large. Winner of Best Comedy Show of 1998 from the British Comedy Awards, Goodness Gracious Me (whose last original episode aired in early 2000) led the way for another extremely popular britcom, The Kumars at No. 42, which is being given the American treatment this coming fall in Fox’s The Ortegas. Goodness alumni Meera Syal (she’s a playwright, novelist and journalist, too) and Sanjeev Bhaskar are two of the stars in The Kumars, also. It’s a pity we haven’t seen the show over here, but here’s hoping that someone (like BBC America perhaps?) will pick it up and let us get a look at the original.

Fans of the viciously humorous The Office may be encouraged to note that Anil Gupta, (who also wrote for the amazing Spitting Image series), one of the producers of Goodness Gracious Me, is currently one of the exec producers of The Office, so if an impressive provenance means anything to you, this show has it. Face it, all things Indian are inherently cool, and finally lots of people are catching on. Bollywood is being celebrated by Turner Classic Movies this month and the Sundance Channel in July; the musical Bombay Dreams is a hit on the London stage, and for more synchronicity, Goodness Gracious Me star Meera Syal wrote the script for Bombay Dreams, and the terrific Indian composer A R. Rahman did the music. If you’re watching TCM’s Bollywood salute, you can catch Rahman’s music in this Thursday’s Rangeela.

Hey, it really is a small world, and TV, bless its little heart, makes it even smaller and more accessible. I’m all for that, and you should be, too. Take advantage of it!


Crocodile Hunter Live airs this week Monday thru Friday 9pm – 11pm, then again at 12mid – 2am. There’s also an all-day long marathon of all five episodes this Saturday 6/14 from 10am – 8pm.

Here’s the Animal Planet Crocodile Hunter Live website – don’t miss the pants-dropping Steve Irwin animation!

Trio’s Uncensored Comedy festival runs all this month. Check their website for more information.

Here’s a great article about Daniel Hoch and his work.

Goodness Gracious Me runs on Trio Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday this week at 10:30pm and 1:30am, plus a marathon on Saturday 6/14 from 9am – 12n. More airdates are scheduled later in the month. Check out the Goodness Gracious Me website on Trio for more information and airtimes.

Here’s the Goodness Gracious Me website from the BBC.

And here’s a nice article about Meera Syal’s impressive career.

If you’re in London, you might want to catch Bombay Dreams, and if you’re not, their website will make you book a flight asap!