It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Cow...Or – They’re Mad as Hell, and I’m Not Going to Eat It Anymore!


No matter your political leanings, the whole Mad Cow/BSE situation has got to give you the heebie-jeebies, and we’ll be lucky to get off with that. The facts are pretty grim, and it looks as though our government has got now a way bigger – and much more frightening -- cover-up to explain than what happened at Roswell, New Mexico with that UFO back in 1947.

Nobody loves a steak more than I do, but even I’m thinking that it’s time we put our forks down and demanded a great deal more from the USDA than we’re getting now. Although this topic is certainly showing up all over the news, it’s going to take some reading up on your part to get the whole horrifying story, and I’ve got a few good links below that will help you get the facts.

This is really serious stuff, and what if it’s true, as it’s being claimed, that many Alzheimer’s cases could very well be misdiagnosed instances of Mad Cow? You owe it to yourself to get informed and to learn what steps the government hasn’t been taking to make the beef industry responsible and up to world standards. And by the way, it isn’t just beef eaters that are at risk; chicken and pork are now also being drawn into the picture, so choose your poison, folks.


Read this terrifying article reprinted on AlterNet from the Organic Consumers Union, all about what price some of us may already have paid to Mad Cow.

Here’s the Mad Cow Disease homepage of the Organic Consumers Union, with links to comprehensive information on the subject. Scary stuff! Be sure to sign the petition.

And if you want to see what the USDA has to say on the subject, check out their website here.

For a amusing flash animation editorial cartoon on the issue, take a look at Mark Fiore’s site.

 
They Haven't Got a Snowball's Chance in Hell, But...

I'm rooting for the underdogs big-time tonight, first of course with my plea for Showtime and The Chris Isaak Show, and now with a double-recommendation of two guaranteed-to-be-buried 8pm hours tonight on ABC and Fox. The riveting, timely and under-watched homeland security-themed Threat Matrix on ABC starts the new year with a brand new episode, and this show hasn't disappointed yet. There's something appealing square, upfront and upright about the series, and the plots are often riveting, original and never less than intelligent. This is one of the unsung terrific hours of this season, and almost invisible. It's a crime.

Over on Fox, Eliza Dushku continues her stylish and often surprising adventures as Tru, the she-can't-help-but-be-sexy mortuary attendant who can hear the dead. Though Tru Calling certainly fully embraces the whole young viewer bag of tricks like overuse of rock music -- or worse, soulful ballads -- to underscore the dramatics, the producers haven't neglected to supply plenty of plot, personality conflicts and a good cast to make the show first-rate. And for viewers who tune in late -- post-Friends, Fox is no doubt hoping -- they always supply a fast-forward version of the episode so far, a nice device and worth throwing out there, anything to help viewers into the show. At least the network knows they're going to fight for every eyeball. Realism is something worth supporting.

Tonight's going to be particularly hard on both these shows, with NBC premiering their new Donald Trump-centered "Who Wants To Be a Cufflink-wearing Bastard?" The Apprentice (ugh!) at 8:30 following Friends, and CBS is hoping to blunt them by scheduling back-to-back C.S.I.s. 9pm isn't much better, but the options are all equally off-putting -- all of the above plus Extreme Makeover and encores of the I-just-can't-bear-it-anymore The Simple Life -- so I'm rooting for Jamie Kennedy over on the WB. (Or you could take a spin over to watch the now-scandalized Steve Irwin on one of his Crocodile Hunter episodes on Animal Planet. He's still great, baby-dangler or not.)

Opting to watch Threat Matrix or Tru Calling and resist the pull of NBC is tougher than being a salmon swimming upstream, but it's worth the struggle. Best bet is to watch one, tape the other, then be sure to tune to Showtime at 10pm. There's plenty to watch tonight, but you can't be afraid to work that remote. Go. Do. Watch.


Threat Matrix airs at 8pm on ABC.

Tru Calling airs at 8pm on Fox.

The great phrase "Cufflink-bearing Bastard" was coined by good buddy and former colleague Phil Oppenheim, who has a wonderful New Orleans website, a terrific wife, and a great garden.

 
The Chris Isaac Show is Back on Track for Season Three -- Finally!


Whew! We can relax and enjoy again -- The Chris Isaac Show is back! – after a bit of a creative stumble during its second season and a whole year without new episodes. Those of us who loved the show have been anxious for its return, and let’s hope that the extended hiatus hasn’t made anybody -- audience or producers -- forget the qualities that made it one of the most delightful hours on television.

Going back into the show’s history, the multi-episode guest appearances of Bridget Fonda early in the second season, despite much premature praise at the time, almost did the show in. Fonda’s a terrific actress and normally quite appealing, only the storyline -- where she played a hotshot Rolling Stone reporter who becomes Chris’ girlfriend -- nearly annihilated the show’s daffy charm and always-surprising-yet-never-unwelcome moral and emotional center. It was amazing that the creators threw the character of Chris into a semi-permanent relationship so early in the show. That kind of move is usually reserved for desperate shows trying to recapture waning ratings magic. And while Ms. Fonda’s casting must have been a real coup, it was an unsatisfying misstep in terms of the show. Her ambition and being just plain not nice enough for Chris -- surely you’ve all had super nice male friends with girlfriends who are way too bitchy for them, and you hate it -- made their romance a sour note in an otherwise delectable production. Though she only appeared in a handful of episodes, it kind of cast a pall over the season, but by now we’ve all had a chance to forget the past, and new viewers won't care anyway.

If you’re a fan, you know that the series revolves around the adventures of Chris and his band the Silvertones, played by the real band members Rowland Salley, Kenney Dale Johnson, and Hershel Yatovitz, with the addition of the unique and gifted actor Jed Rees (Galaxy Quest) as keyboardist Anson. It’s an unbeatable male grouping, with Chris’ essentially sunny nature parlayed against his buddies who are alternately crazed, crusty, cynical and hilarious. And don’t forget wise. This show is brimming with the same underlying human-centric philosophy that permeated the creators’ former hit Northern Exposure, sans the deliberately and incessantly quirky Alaskan trappings of that show. (Need it be mentioned that Exposure hasn’t worked in reruns -- ever -- and though you couldn’t escape the kudos during its network run, the combination of oddball antics and a fuzzy storyline have made it hard to embrace in its dotage, and you can’t even find it running anyplace these days.)

Pop star Isaak, who long ago proved his acting chops with his infrequent though always well-done turns in movies like Little Buddha and Twin Peak: Fire Walk With Me, and in a handful of TV shows like Friends and From The Earth to the Moon, is especially effective here, his easy-going, down-to-earth, refreshingly humble adorable-ness the center of the piece. Band members Salley, Johnson and Yatovitz bring the same charm and virtuosity to their acting roles here as they do with their music. Jed Rees is given most of the comedy relief antics, his eternally raunchy rutting and overall goofball behavior always a delight and never merely shoehorned in for easy laughs. Once in a while he gets serious, and he’s great at that, too. What am I really saying? They’re all great.

The other crucial member of the ensemble is Yola, Chris’career-girl manager-friend-confidant-fellow-traveler. Yola, as skillfully played by Kristin Dattilo, is one of the most complex young women on TV; she’s got a great career but has enormous gaps in her everyday knowledge (and if anybody has ever worked in an office with late-20s career girls I think you’ll find her very realistic) and is frequently tripped up by them. And yet you feel for her; Yola’s full of bluff, but works hard for and cares deeply about her client Chris -- and thankfully not in a romantic way (they’ve avoided that insipid cliché situation) -- and is sincerely trying to integrate her job, her psyche, and her dreams in this often unfathomable world. She’s got a little dog she can’t bear to discipline, a string of boyfriends she can’t keep, a Harvard-educated rich kid as a colleague who gets all the breaks, and a lifestyle she’s sometimes not sure she wants or even likes. It’s a great character, far less precious than Ally McBeal or her annoying colleagues ever were, and simply a delight to watch. If the show were on HBO, got more press attention and awards were just, Dattilo would surely be a contender, she’s that good.

As the privileged co-worker Cody, Greg Winter also portrays a type that’s prevalent in certain industries, especially entertainment, the up-and-comer who obviously has everything and mostly importantly always has, for whom work is very nearly a lark and certainly not an economic necessity. (Think Trust Fund kids). A truly despicable type to those of us who worked up the bootstrap way, and yet, like a precious few of those folks in real life, he (annoyingly) isn’t nearly as easy-to-loathe as you’d expect him to be. And though she was more prominent as in the early episodes, Mona, the beautiful naked woman who lives inside an optical illusion at Bimbo’s (trust me on that one), was a wonderfully creative and magical part of the show, and here’s hoping she’s back for more this year. There’s not a stereotypical TV character in the bunch, and each one contributes to the satisfying and centered feeling one gets after watching an episode of The Chris Isaac Show.

I’m really hoping this new season lives up to the best of the earlier episodes, and perhaps you’ve been able to catch some of them in encores on Showtime the past few months. VH1 had them on the schedule a while back, but no more. Here’s hoping that they make it onto DVD fairly soon, and if this new season is as good as the first, the fans ought to be clamoring for them.

I haven’t mentioned the musical component of the show, primarily because I’m not a big music person, but you wouldn’t music a show about musical star Chris Isaak without some tunes. Many episodes have featured musical guest stars, this season promising Cyndi Lauper and Michelle Branch among others, and the songs, often performed on a set representing Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco, a long-time real-life Isaak venue, are a special treat for his fans.

In short, the return of The Chris Isaak Show is a cause for genuine celebration, giving us a whole new reason for lovin' this mid-season season. Don’t miss it! I think you're gonna love it.


The Chris Isaak Show begins its third season tonight at 10pm on Showtime. Check out the show website for more information (though not much more, all the old info seems to be gone) and the full airing schedule.

TV Tome is a great source of up-to-date The Chris Isaak Show information.

Here's a nice site about the show's first two
seasons, from a French fan.

The Canadian Much More Music Channel, home of the show up North, has a good site here.

There are some interesting press stories about the show here.

 
Many Shows, Only One Real Choice Tonight

Although you could opt for watching ABC's double-whammy of dubious reality TV with Life After Extreme Makeover and Celebrity Mole Yucatan -- the latter of which the only suitable response would be a breakout of Montezuma's Revenge -- or a new episode of The West Wing on NBC, or repeats of the out-of-this-world line-ups on UPN or WB, what will do you the most good tonight is to tune into Discovery Health Channel at 10pm tonight. They're replaying the fascinating documentary Christopher Reeve: Courageous Steps, originally broadcast in September 2002, and if you missed it then, don't now. It's a sobering, intelligent, bracing, realistic and eye-opening account of his continuing efforts to recover from his devastating accident. After watching this amazing documentary, the next time you're inclined to moan about a little backache, believe me, you won't.

 
A&E Flies High (and Stoops Low) in Search of Ratings Tonight

As I’ve noted before several times, A&E is scrambling hard to regain some of its past glory, when they still had Law & Order and Biography rode its coattails to such a high profile that it spawned its very own network. Well, things are different these days; TNT took over the L&O reruns and the guaranteed ratings it brings (and became the top-rated cable net this year thanks to them and their halo effect), and Third Watch is hardly a replacement. With no ultra-solid lead-in, Biography isn’t quite the sensation it used to be. To A&E’s credit, both Cold Case Files and City Confidential are terrific programs, and now stripped M – F, all the better to get some viewing habits established.

In an even bolder move to play with the big boys again, A&E introduces two new shows tonight. One of them, I think, is probably on the wrong channel, but the other one has all the right psychosocial ingredients -- plus a successful track record on British TV -- to make it a really good move for the network. On House of Dreams, sixteen disparate and desperate personality types collaborate and connive during the building of a Florida coastal home which will be awarded to the winner. Hosted by the Everyman-like former Cheers star George Wendt, this is Survivor Meets Trading Spaces, or any of the myriad other house-building, house-fixing, house-grousing shows that have sprung up all over cable. I realize a network’s brand is only an illusion in some marketer’s mind -- programs determine the real brand, the one your viewers tune in for -- but this show’s concept is just too far off target and out of character for A&E. Not to mention that it sounds a little too much like TBS’ recent not-so-successful House Rules, which also was a fish-out-of-water on a movie and sitcom network.

On a brighter note for A&E, I’d say, is their appropriation of Britain’s ITV network’s Airline, which over there followed the everyday operations of economy airline EasyJet, and over here does the same for budget carrier Southwest. The UK version was a big hit, one of the biggest coming out of the genre that they more accurately refer to as docusoap, but we still over-reachingly and apologetically usually misname as reality. There’s nothing at all real, of course, about the way people act when there’s a video crew around, but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be something entertaining or possibly even enlightening about what does goes on.

You may have caught episodes of the original Airline (renamed Airport) on BBC America several years ago, when the channel was still fairly eclectic in what they picked up from across the pond. (They also used to run one of the other docusoaps hits called Driving School -- just what it sounds like -- and Clampers, about the guys who put the boots on illegally parked cars, neither of which so far seem to have been snapped up by a U.S. producer.) These days Airport can still be seen Tuesdays on Discovery Wings Channel, and naturally I’d recommend taking a look at it. Popular with nobody but the public, the show had all the elements that, if copied faithfully, should assure its favorable reception over here. As Alan Sweating hilariously and accurately wrote about the original show in the online version of The Guardian on June 24, 2000:

"We soared into the unfriendly skies with a new series of Airline (ITV), the docusoap about easyJet. Conforming perfectly to the conventions of the genre, Airline comprises a cast of characters all furiously trying to build up their own roles, while we're supposed not to notice the laborious artifice with which this slice of "everyday life" has been constructed. With its camp, flamboyant young men and bossy ticket- desk harridans, it makes Luton airport look like a suburban unisex hairdresser's where everybody is auditioning for a stage production of Fame."

How could it miss over here? At least they know when to call a soap opera a soap, whether it's set in "real" life or not.

A&E's version of Airline premieres tonight with two episodes at 10p and 10:30p, and judging from the amount of press they’re getting, this could be the show that brings viewers back to the network. The airport setting is alternately mundane, infuriating, somewhat baffling and yet totally familiar to the audience, like a mini disaster movie in the making, and I think that sounds like a big win for A&E. Never mind that this clearly isn’t A -- as in Art; if it’s E enough that’ll be good enough for a network yearning to get back into the ring.


Visit the A&E Airline website for more information on the show and the complete schedule.

Here's an article/press release about the premiere of Airline from Yahoo's Entertainment site.

The original UK version airs on Discovery Wings Channel on a Tuesday - Wednesday schedule beginning at 8pm Tuesday and continuing at 11pm, 4am, 7am, 12n, and 3pm. Check out their website for more information.

Here's a nice short and cynical review of the British Airline.

House of Dreams also premieres tonight, at 9pm, on A&E. Here's the official website for the show.

 
Go HBO Tonight


Although I’m not a fan of Sex and the City, my frequent attempts to give the show a chance always thwarted by what I’m actually seeing -- something just a little too…too for me -- if you’ve been following the gal quartet’s antics for the past five 86 episodes, you’ll want to be there tonight at 9pm for what will begin their last season. No doubt SatC has tickled the fancy of countless viewers, and once this last batch airs, it will be interesting to see how the show will play in the real world, i.e. syndication, which begins on TBS this June, to be followed by other stations in the fall of ’05. I realize that it’s an unknown quantity to non-HBO subscribers, but whether it will play, sans some of the naughty talk and activity, like a hit comedy or like a high-fashion hen party/soap opera is far from a foregone conclusion. But hey, that’s the future. Today is the first day of the rest of the show, so if it’s your thing, be there.

One really good thing coming out of the incessant promos on HBO for SatC is that viewers are being exposed, probably unknowingly, to ‘50s comedy/singing/movie star Betty Hutton; her trademark version of “It’s Oh So Quiet” is the musical track for the spot. It’s a wonderful choice, seductive, exuberant and of course unique, just like the lady herself.

And of course stick around for the 9:30pm 4th season premiere of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, the immensely entertaining half-hour comedy. If you’re coming late to this idiosyncratic party, you’ll be pleased to know that Season 1 will be out on DVD January 13th, but certainly this show can be enjoyed without any expectations beyond the chance to see a distinctive comedy voice given free rein. There’s guaranteed to be something breathtakingly refreshing, scabrous, and hilarious in every episode, and you can’t ask for more than that. And the show grows on you, getting funnier and more perfect every time you watch an episode again. Connoisseurs of the comedy form will find it a treat to see talented comedy performers get a chance to shine, including veterans like Shelley Berman and Louis Nye, and extra credit goes to Cheryl Hines for her wry performance as Larry David’s spouse and conscience. The entire cast is perfect, if not always perfectly behaved. Definitely a must-see!


Sex and the City begins its 7th and final season tonight at 9pm on HBO. Check out their SatC site for more information.

Betty Hutton, the singer on “It’s Oh So Quiet” from the promos, has a few nice fansites, one of which is here.

You can also check out the album with the song here.

And if you’d like to hear a more recent cover of the song, try Bjork’s equally fantastic version.


Curb Your Enthusiasm begins its 4th season tonight at 9:30pm on HBO. Check out the CYE site for background info.

Also of note, Executive Producer Robert B. Weide is a longtime comedy fan, with documentaries about The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields and Lenny Bruce under his appreciative belt. You’ll enjoy his Whyaduck Productions website here. Any site with a duck on its homepage is a winner with me! If you love comedy, you just know that ducks are always funny.