Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, ER, Cheers, Law & Order, Will & Grace…Here is the funny, splashy, irresistible insiders’ account of the greatest era in television history — told by the actors, writers, directors, producers, and the network executives who made it happen…and watched it all fall apart.

Warren Littlefield was the NBC President of Entertainment who oversaw the Peacock Network’s rise from also-ran to a division that generated a billion dollars in profits.  In this fast-paced and exceptionally entertaining oral history, Littlefield and NBC luminaries including Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Kelsey Grammer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Julianna Marguiles, Anthony Edwards, Noah Wylie, Debra Messing, Jack Welch, Jimmy Burrows, Helen Hunt, and Dick Wolf vividly recapture the incredible era of Must See TV.

From 1993 through 1998, NBC exploded every conventional notion of what a broadcast network could accomplish with the greatest prime-time line-up in television history. On Thursday nights, a cavalcade of groundbreaking comedies and dramas streamed into homes, attracting a staggering 75 million viewers and generating more revenue than all other six nights of programming combined. The road to success, however, was a rocky one. How do you turn a show like Seinfeld, one of the lowest testing pilots of all time, into a hit when the network overlords are constantly warring, or worse, drowning in a bottle of vodka?

Top of the Rock is an addictively readable account of the risky business decisions, creative passion, and leaps of faith that made Must See TV possible. Chock full of delicious behind-the-scenes anecdotes that run the gamut from hilarious casting and programming ploys to petty jealousies and drug interventions, you’re in for a juicy, unputdownable read.

About Warren Littlefield and T. R. Pearson

WARREN LITTLEFIELD is the former NBC president of entertainment. Previous to that, he was the NBC comedy executive who developed such hit shows as The Cosby Show and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He currently runs his own television production company. 

T. R. PEARSON is the author of fourteen novels, including A Short History of a Small Place, and Warwolf. This is his fifth nonfiction book.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Editorial Review

With the assistance of novelist Pearson (Warwolf, 2011, etc.), former NBC president of entertainment Littlefield gathers candid comments from actors, executives and behind-the-scenes people responsible for some of the most successful TV shows of the 1990s. The subjects relate everything from their struggles to make it in the entertainment industry to dealing with the type of overnight fame that many of them eventually enjoyed. In particular, the book focuses on the cast and crew of Seinfeld and Friends, programs that dealt with early hardships before later enjoying unabashed success. Perhaps the most scandalous aspect of the book, however, is Littlefield’s willingness to throw his former boss Don Ohlmeyer under the bus. Ohlmeyer, who apparently understood very little about TV, arrived at NBC after Littlefield had been there for years and assumed a position above him in the corporate hierarchy. While his struggles with addiction and subsequent stint in rehab are a matter of public record, many of the interviews here shed light on the significance of the daily frustrations of Ohlmeyer’s battle with alcoholism. Interviews with Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Reiser and Lisa Kudrow, among others, are particularly interesting because they worked with NBC both in front of and behind the camera. None of the interviewees shy away from negative topics, including the letdowns of test-screening results and executives not realizing which shows would later become hits. – Kirkus Reviews

THE SABRINA STRONG SERIES by LORELEI BELL

Book One: Vampire Ascending [More Info...]

Book Two: Vampire’s Trill [More Info...]

Based on the meticulous research of the news watchdog organization Media Matters for America, David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt show how Fox News, under its president Roger Ailes, changed from a right-leaning news network into a partisan advocate for the Republican Party.

The Fox Effect follows the career of Ailes from his early work as a television producer and media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. Consequently, when he was hired in 1996 as the president of Rupert Murdoch’s flagship conservative cable news network, Ailes had little journalism experience, but brought to the job the mindset of a political operative. As Brock and Rabin-Havt demonstrate through numerous examples, Ailes used his extraordinary power and influence to spread a partisan political agenda that is at odds with long-established, widely held standards of fairness and objectivity in news reporting.

Featuring transcripts of leaked audio and memos from Fox News reporters and executives, The Fox Effect is a damning indictment of how the network’s news coverage and commentators have biased reporting, drummed up marginal stories, and even consciously manipulated established facts in their efforts to attack the Obama administration.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About David Brock

David Brock, the founder and CEO of Media Matters, is the author of five books, including The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy, and his bestselling memoir Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative.

Editorial Reviews

“Media Matters tells the truth–and then spreads the truth far and wide. They are a leading and effective voice in combating misinformation. This latest book, by founder David Brock, makes clear the threat that incendiary journalism poses to our democracy.” —Nancy Pelosi

“Think of any conservative-media scandal of the past few years. . . and it’s a good bet that a Media Matters researcher flagged the offending clip, uploaded it to the group’s website, and got the party started.” —New York Magazine

“Fox News has created a generation of woefully (and objectively) misinformed ideological sycophants to pursue its radical agenda. It’s no accident. Now David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt show that no matter how unethical and dishonest you think Fox News is, the reality is that they’re much, much worse.” —Markos Moulitsas, publisher, Daily Kos

Right Face - ‘The Fox Effect,’ by David Brock and His Colleagues

The New York Times Book Review – March 2, 2012 (Excerpt)

One of the peculiarities of modern conservatism is that the most coruscating examinations of its doctrines are often issued from dissidents within its own ranks. Some of the more recent renegades include the Christian evangelical David Kuo, who served in George W. Bush’s administration; the economist Bruce Bartlett, who was a Reagan administration official; and the commentators Damon Linker and David Frum. But perhaps no one remains a more improbable critic than David Brock.

In the Reagan years, Brock began his career within the neoconservative orbit of The Washington Times. Soon he migrated to The American Spectator, where he became a key figure in the “Arkansas Project,” which was financed by the billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and was intended to destroy Bill Clinton’s presidency. In addition, Brock assailed Anita Hill, whom he had earlier deemed “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty,” in a best-selling book. Then, in the late 1990s, he performed a political somersault. In his riveting 2002 memoir, “Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative,” he flayed both himself and his former mentors for toppling into an intellectual and moral cesspool. There the story might have ended. But since then Brock has discovered a new vocation as the founder of Media Matters for America, an organization that seeks to monitor and expose what it sees as conservative misinformation.

In “The Fox Effect,” Brock and his associate Ari Rabin-Havt target Rupert Murdoch’s lucrative flagship cable network, Fox News. They draw on Michael Wolff’s biography of Murdoch as well as on transcripts and leaked memos (some of which Media Matters has already publicized) from Fox journalists and executives to contend that it is not a traditional news organization, but a propaganda outlet intent on reshaping the Republican Party in its own image. [Read the full article...]

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

In this comic and moving and completely true tale, Film School reveals what life is like at the elite school that trained Hollywood’s biggest names.

When Midwestern journalist Steve Boman applied to the University of Southern California’s vaunted School of Cinematic Arts, the world’s oldest and most prestigious film school, he had more than a few strikes against him: His wife was recovering from thyroid cancer. His beloved sister had just died of leukemia. He lost his job. He had three young children. He was in his late 30s…. And he had no experience in filmmaking.

As Boman navigates his way through USC’s arduous three-year graduate production program, he finds that his films fall flat, he’s threatened with being kicked out of the program and he becomes the old guy no one wants to work with. Defeated, he quits and moves back to the Midwest to be with his family. After he is urged by his wife to reapply, he miraculously gets in for a second time…only to have a stroke on the first day of classes. But instead of doing the easy thing – running away again — Boman throws caution to the wind and embraces the challenge. He slowly becomes a gray-haired Golden Boy at USC with films that sparkle. And then he does the impossible: While still in school, for a class project, he dreams up a television series that CBS catches wind of and develops into THREE RIVERS, a primetime Sunday night show.

This story of challenge and triumph—and what it takes to make it in the world’s most famous film school—is a must-read for anyone aspiring to become a Hollywood great or anyone just looking for a good story.

About Steve Boman

Steve Boman was just your average middle-aged ex-newspaper reporter and stay-at-home dad when he applied to be a student at the University of Southern California’s vaunted School of Cinematic Arts. Boman didn’t know what would await him at the world’s oldest and most prestigious film school, a place that has trained Hollywood heavyweights George Lucas, John Carpenter, James Ivory, Judd Apatow, Brian Grazer, Shonda Rhimes, John Singleton, Jay Roach, Conrad Hall, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

Film School is a must-read for anyone who has ever wanted to attend USC (myself included) or any other film program.  It’s also a great motivator for anyone who wants to change careers but worries that it’s too late (me again).  And have I mentioned how freaking awesome the cover is?   — from Chicks Dig Books.

His approach is reminiscent of the Harvard student who became an able-bodied seaman in the 1830s and sailed in a tall ship around Cape Horn to write the classic of experiential journalism, TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST.- From David Howard’s foreword to Film School. 

“Read Steve Boman’s Film School to understand all the effort, heartbreak, creativity, begging, stealing, joy, backstabbing and stamina that it takes to make movies. Part exposé, part-American-Dream-come-true, Boman’s keenly observant and fascinating book takes the shine off of the glamour we know as Hollywood and shows us the real world of making movies.”
—Ali Selim, writer and director of SWEETLAND, 2007 Independent Spirit winner; director of episodes of IN TREATMENT, CRIMINAL MINDS

Book review: Steve Boman tells tales from ‘Film School’ at USC

The Chicago Tribune Book Review – January 31, 2012 (Excerpt)

I’ve always thought of advanced degrees in filmmaking as finishing school for misfits. Brilliant misfits, some of them. But misfits just the same.

Into the film school world stumbles Steve Boman, a former reporter seeking a midlife U-turn. Astoundingly, even to him, the father of three has been accepted into the graduate program at USC’s esteemed School of Cinematic Arts, where he will compete against hipsters half his age in the series of ever-larger student films over the course of a three-year program.

If you’re thinking “Paper Chase” for the movie set, you wouldn’t be far off. USC is, after all, the equivalent of the Harvard Law School of filmmaking, with all the quirks, all-night study sessions and faculty mind games such elite institutions seems to produce.

In “Film School,” Boman writes casually and very personally of his experiences. He doesn’t pull a lot of punches, but neither does he mock his cohorts and instructors, though the temptation must have been mighty. In true moviemaking fashion, he sets the scene and lets it play out for the reader:

“[Our instructor] appears to be sleeping or meditating or just plain ignoring us. We students file past and quietly take a seat. We hardly know each other, much less who this guy is. We think he’s the lead instructor, but maybe he’s a wayward parent or a homeless guy. A couple of my classmates look at me questioningly, wondering if I have a clue what’s going on. I shrug. I know as little as they do.” [Read the full article...]

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

The Gothic tradition continues to excite the popular imagination. John C. Tibbetts presents interviews and conversations with prominent novelists, filmmakers, artists, and film and television directors and actors as they trace the Gothic mode across three centuries, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, through H.P. Lovecraft, to today’s science fiction, goth, and steampunk culture. H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Robert (Psycho) Bloch, Chris (The Polar Express) Van Allsburg, Maurice Sendak, Gahan Wilson, Ray Harryhausen, Christopher Reeve, Greg Bear, William Shatner, and many more share their worlds of imagination and terror.

About John C. Tibbetts

John C. Tibbetts is an Associate Professor of Film at the University of Kansas. His sixteen published books include, most recently, Schumann: A Chorus of Voices (2010) and All My Loving?: The Films of Tony Palmer (2009). Other books include The American Theatrical Film (1985), Encyclopedia of Novels into Film (2002), and Composers in the Movies (2005). His articles on film, literature, painting, theatre, and music have appeared in Notes, Film Comment,Opera News, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, Journal of Popular Film and Television, and Literature/Film Quarterly. He has previously worked as a broadcaster for National Public Radio, the Christian Science Monitor Radio Network, Voice of America, and CBS television.Both of his radio series, The World of Robert Schumann and Piano Portraits, have been heard worldwide on the WFMT broadcast network and National Public Radio. He was awarded the 2008 Kansas Governor’s Arts in Education Award. Video and audio collections from his thirty years in broadcasting and education are currently being prepared for installation at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in 2012.

Editorial Reviews

“Tibbetts (Schumann: A Chorus of Voices) brings a fan’s enthusiasm and a scholar’s acumen to the dozens of interviews of professionals in horror, fantasy, science film, art, and comics that make up this engrossing study of the Gothic and its commingling of ‘terror and wonder.’ Corralling the contents into nine loosely organized chapters (‘The Heroic Age of Fantasy and Science Fiction,’ ‘The Music of Terror,’ etc.), he presents his Q&As like private conversations recorded in rooms full of experts. Some chapters are fairly straightforward, among them ‘The Lovecraft Circle,’ which presents the words of Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Ted Klein, and other writers influenced by the horror tales of H.P. Lovecraft. His chapter ‘Postmodern Gothic,’ on the other hand, juxtaposes the insights of horror masters Stephen King and Peter Straub, to those of science fiction master Brian Aldiss and true-crime specialist Harold Schechter for a fascinating reflection on the modern evolution of the Gothic tradition. Entertaining and informative, this book proves that smart questions invariably elicit smart responses from masters of the fantastic in the arts.”–PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“John C. Tibbetts’ wild and exuberant anthology of interviews will certainly test your synapses as well as your literary prejudices.” – From the preface by Richard Holmes”Our literature starts with a vision of blackness, and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that our country at first was mostly untamable forest. There were truly bad things out there. Now, we don’t want to have that. We want to believe in the surface of things . . .But I think daily life is still filled with uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. Nobody’s life is really safe.” – Interview with Peter Straub

“What I want to do is use a scientific theory to give you experiences you’ve never had before . . .like ghosts you’ve never seen before, in contexts that you’ve never really experienced. [With] an underpinning and a mythos to what you’re seeing that it almost makes sense, and that’s what provides the scare.” – Interview with Greg Bear “Absolutely fascinating. Tibbetts has written a work of striking originality, demonstrating how important recorded oral history is to the serious study of mass culture.” – David Culbert, John L. Loos Professor of History, Louisiana State University and editor, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television“With both the knowledgeable enthusiasm of a lifelong fan and the analytical expertise of an accomplished scholar, Tibbetts has managed to coax some shrewdly observed critical insights, revealing personal anecdotes, and sometimes bittersweet emotional ruminations from his wide range of interviewees, whether they be writers, editors, artists, collectors, or filmmakers. And he captures very well the highly individualized tone and personality of each of his subjects. Evocative and intellectually stimulating, this collection works both as a celebration of and an elegy about a bygone age of popular-cultural achievement.” – Kenneth Z. Jurkiewicz, Associate Professor of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts, Central Michigan University

John C. Tibbetts’s ‘The Gothic Imagination,’ reviewed by Michael Dirda

The Washington Post Book Review – December 28, 2011 (Excerpt)

The cover of “The Gothic Imagination” depicts a futuristic city threatened by a glowering satanic figure framed against a starry night sky. While John C. Tibbetts may teach film at the University of Kansas and write often about classical music and theater, that painting — and several drawings scattered throughout his book — make clear that he’s also a talented artist. Still, the key to this volume of “Conversations on Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction in the Media” can actually be found in Tibbetts’s middle initial, C.

Tibbetts’s father was an early science fiction fan who named his son after Edgar Rice Burroughs’s second great hero, John Carter of Mars. (The first, of course, is Tarzan, Lord Greystoke.) Unlike many sons, Tibbetts embraced his destiny and became a serious reader and collector of fantasy and sci-fi. The questions he asks in these far-ranging interviews — with H.P. Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, artists Maurice Sendak and Gahan Wilson, 1950s television actor Frankie Thomas (star of “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet”), the cast of “Star Trek,” and a half-dozen important novelists from Robert Bloch and Ray Bradbury to Kim Stanley Robinson — reveal a deep knowledge of what fans call, quite simply, “the field.”

The book opens with a preface by Richard Holmes, in which the noted biographer and historian of the Romantic era attempts to define the Gothic imagination. Holmes points to “a quite old-fashioned notion: the inexhaustible wonder of the universe.” A few pages later Tibbetts adds that the writers of fairy tales, horror stories, science fictional prophecies and steampunk novels focus on “terror and wonder” rather than “sentimental love and reason.” Theirs, he adds, is a transgressive imagination. Later still, Harold Schechter, an authority on the American Gothic, reminds us that “we thrive on the kinds of entertainments folklorists call ‘wondertales’: beguiling, gripping, swiftly paced stories that trigger a very basic and powerful emotional response in the audience: astonishment or terror, laughter or tears, suspense or erotic arousal.” He insists that we all have a hunger for “violent spectacle, to feed that primitive part of ourselves that William James called ‘the carnivore within.’ ” [Read the full article...]

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CRIMSON DAWN
Book One of the Darklife Saga by Ronnie Massey

Two Women Hunting A Rogue Vampire

Vampire Valeria Trumaine must confront old demons and face new possibilities as she struggles to bring a rogue vampire to justice. Her best friend and powerful Sidhe princess, Irulan, joins the hunt. Valeria will find that Irulan’s motives for keeping her safe are not what she thinks. And soon she is faced with an undeniable attraction that makes her question everything she knew about herself. [Read More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

The world’s most beloved funnyman is back with his first humor book since the bestselling Cosbyology. In this hilarious new collection of observations, Cosby brings us more of his wonderful and wacky insights into the human condition that are sure to become classics. In the tradition of Fat Albert, Cosby introduces a host of new characters, including Peanut Armhouse and Old Mother Harold. Not since Mushmouth, Dumb Donald, Bucky, and the Cosby Kids has there been such a memorable cast.

Over the past century, few entertainers have achieved the legendary status of William H. Cosby, Jr. His success spans five decades and virtually all media-remarkable accomplishments for a kid who emerged from humble beginnings in a Philly housing project.

The doctor of comedy holds forth on everything from a game show contestant’s confusing origins, to a grandchild with a Godzilla infatuation, to his first love Bernadette, and many more delightful digressions.

Bill Cosby may not have asked to be born, but we’re sure glad he was.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About Bill Cosby

The legendary comedian, author, and activist Bill Cosby continues to be as prolific and relevant as ever, reaching every generation and every audience since he began his career in stand-up four decades ago. He is one of the most influential performers of the second half of the 20th century. He has had an unparalleled career in television; has sold more record albums than any other comedian; his blockbuster books have sold millions of copies; and his generous support of numerous charities, particularly in the field of education, have endowed many Americans with the gift of hope and learning. Through his groundbreaking appearances on television, particularly in two landmark series each of which defined an American decade, Bill Cosby has touched the lives of millions of Americans. In the 1960s, “I Spy” broke the racial barrier in television by featuring Cosby as the first-ever black lead of a weekly dramatic series. In the 1980s, Cosby returned to television with a show that Coretta Scott King described as “the most positive portrayal of black family life that has ever been broadcast.” “The Cosby Show” enjoyed years of number-one ratings and nearly unanimous critical praise.

Cosby’s success on television has been matched in other areas. In 1986 he broke Radio City Music Hall’s 53-year-old attendance record for his concert appearance. Cosby’s also a giant in the publishing world. Fatherhood (1986) became one of the fastest-selling hardcover book of all time, remaining for more than half of its fifty-four weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List as Number 1. It has sold 2.6 million hardcover copies and 1.5 million paperbacks. Time Flies had the largest single first printing in publishing history–1.75 million. Now, I Am What I Ate,and I’m Frightened. A crusader throughout his career for a better world, his great success in the world of entertainment is complemented by his involvement with a host of charity organizations, making substantial gifts in support of education, most notably to predominantly black colleges and to various social service and civil rights organizations. On the evolution of his own style of comedy, Bill Cosby states that he was drawn at an early age to the masters of jazz, learning to emulate in comedy their ability to take an idea and continually find new and innovative ways of expressing the same theme. The legacy of Bill Cosby’s comedic genius is as sweet, meaningful and universal as any piece of music ever played.

Editorial Review

The Cos again waxes funny on the commonplace happenings of life as we may know it.

With his patented good humor, Cosby (I Am What I Ate… and I’m Frightened!!!: And Other Digressions from the Doctor of Comedy, 2003, etc.) grouses, like many of his contemporaries, about kids today. As in previous collections, the memoir covers his own Golden Age, that long-gone middle of the 20th century in the projects of the City of Brotherly Love. He remembers the daring exploration peculiar to childhood, recalling the monkey bars in the outfield of his sandlot softball games, riding the trolley, the movie house and other local haunts—and of course, the girls. It’s part memoir, part shtick and mostly sly. Bible scholar Cosby offers his exegesis on Genesis, and he reworks his exasperation about the supremely ugly Cabbage Patch Dolls. His standup timing, still one of the best in the business, works in the single-pagers, but is more measured in the short stories as they search for vagrant punch lines. If there are fewer rim shots than in the past, Cosby is still quite entertaining, and the great George Booth provides apt illustrations.

For fans, a small Philly cheesesteak, nonchalant as youth itself, by a comic master. – Kirkus Reviews

Bill Cosby Enlists Santa’s Staff For A Silent Night

NPR Book Review – December 25, 2011 (Excerpt)

Ah, the joys of a houseful of family on Christmas — the tensions, the simmering resentments, the screaming children.

Bill Cosby’s three grandchildren visit him every year for the holiday. But the comedian tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz that he’s not a traditional sort of grandfather, who “believes they came from heaven above.”

“They’re annoying,” Cosby says of his grandkids. “These people make a lot of noise, they blame each other for things.”

So last year Cosby came up with a plan to calm the squabbling children and restore Christmas cheer to his household. He lays it all out in his new book, I Didn’t Ask to Be Born (But I’m Glad I Was).

The plan involved a phone call from Santa’s assistant, who was confused because the children were not at home in New York, but in Massachusetts visiting their grandparents.

“I walked into the den of inequity and yelling and said, ‘There’s an assistant of Santa Claus’ on the phone who wants to talk to you guys,’” he says. Automatically, the children were silent. [Read the full article...]

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BOILED PEANUTS
A Novel by John Patrick Doyle

A Peeping Tom Goes Nuts Over A Blind Girl

Paul Kirk is a librarian and one of his town’s quirkier residents.  In a childhood home lacking parents (his mother dying of MS and his father an alcoholic) Paul had imagined himself a member of the neighboring family. Now in his late twenties, Paul vicariously participates in the households of his community. His peeping-Tom proclivities express his awkward need for social bonding. [Read more...]

Boiled Peanuts is available through Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

As famous for his popular cooking segment on Wake Up America! as for his swank Manhattan bistro, Billy Blessing can add prime murder suspect to his impressive list of accomplishments. Because when one of the network’s top honchos ends up dead, it’s a poisoned serving of Blessing’s coq au vin that’s to blame. Billy knows he’s being framed, but proving it won’t be easy—not with his perky cohost involved in a brass-knuckles contract negotiation, a Mossad agent about to tell all on the air, and a ruthless international assassin arriving in the Big Apple. Now Billy isn’t so much concerned about staying alive in the ratings . . . as just staying alive. For the closer Billy comes to uncovering an international conspiracy, the closer he comes to being canceled—permanently.

About Al Roker and Dick Lochte

Al Roker is known to over thirty million viewers for his work on NBC’s Today show, a role that has earned him ten Emmy awards. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Make Me Stop This Car!: Adventures in Fatherhood. An accomplished cook, Roker also has two bestselling cookbooks to his credit. Al Roker lives in Manhattan with his wife, ABC News and 20/20 correspondent Deborah Roberts, and has two daughters and a son.

Dick Lochte is the author of many popular crime novels including the award-winning Sleeping Dog, named one of “the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century” by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. His crime fiction column ran for nearly a decade in the Los Angeles Times and earned him the 2003 Ellen Nehr Award for Excellence in Mystery Reviewing. He lives in Southern California.

Editorial Reviews

Roker (Al Roker’s Big Bad Book of Barbecue) teams with Lochte (Sleeping Dog) on a solid, exciting crime novel that revolves around a fictional TV program much like NBC’s The Today Show. Billy Blessing, a New York City celebrity chef who owns a restaurant and does a variety of segments on Wake Up, America!, has just begun filming a reality food show when he becomes a suspect in a murder case after Rudy Gallagher, Blessing’s executive producer on the show with whom he has clashed, dies after eating some poisoned coq au vin from Blessing’s restaurant. When the Manhattan DA shut downs the restaurant and Gallagher’s replacement suspends him from his main television gig, Blessing turns sleuth. The gold standard for investigating network TV skullduggery is still the late William DeAndrea’s Matt Cobb series (Killed in the Ratings, etc.), but snappy prose and well-developed characters will leave readers wanting to see more of Blessing. – Publishers Weekly

Weatherman Roker is the latest celebrity to pen a mystery thriller, and it is a surprisingly engaging one (thanks, in part, to the work of coauthor and genre veteran Lochte). The hero is Chef Billy Blessing, food anchor for the fictional morning show Wake Up America! and owner of a very successful Manhattan bistro. After the mysterious death of one of the network’s executives, Billy’s life takes a dangerous turn. Not only is he suspected of murdering the exec with a poisoned coq au vin but it quickly becomes clear that an international assassin has his sights set on Billy, prompting the chef to do his own investigating. Roker, with the help of Lochte, writes engagingly and, of course, knowledgeably about network television. But his other interests (in food and cartooning, for example) are also seamlessly integrated into the plot. Roker’s trademark humor is in ample evidence, but there is plenty of action, too: a car-chase scene through the Lincoln Tunnel is remarkably vivid and true to life. Good fun for Roker’s followers and cozy fans. - Judy Coon, Booklist

Billy Blessing (The Midnight Show Murders, 2010, etc.), star of Wake Up, America!’s cooking spot, hasn’t entirely made a secret of his former life as William Blanchard, who went to jail for helping his foster father, con man Paul Lamont. But he doesn’t exactly flaunt it either. So when he guest stars on Midday with Gemma along with former Chicago cop Pat Patton, the last thing he wants is for Patton to show up in his hotel room threatening to expose his past. Paul is long deceased, killed on orders from mobster Gio Polvere. Polvere is dead too, killed in a fire. When Patton buys it as well, Billy goes on alert, but what puts him over the top is the death of Larry Kelsto, a comic who was supposed to appear on Gemma with him and Patton until he got bumped because starlet Carrie Sands went on too long about her latest project, an American remake of Gerard Parnelle’s The Thief Who Stole the Eiffel Tower. Now strangers in a van are taking pot shots at Billy and Carrie. Mantata, an art gallery owner with likely ties to Lamont, steps out of the shadows, sending three oddball henchmen to protect him. But can Philippine fashion plate Hiho, jiving Jamaican Trejean and good-old-boy-gone-wrong Dal save Chef Billy from a threat whose source is as mysterious as Mantata himself?

Despite its over-the-top finale, Roker and Lochte’s third is as well-paced and thoughtfully prepared as an Alice Waters tasting menu. – Kirkus Review

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

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With 12 chapters spread out over three discs and a total running time of more than nine hours (not including bonus material), the History Channel’s America: The Story of Us is a sprawling primer on the history of the country and its people. Starting about 100 years after Columbus with the arrival of the earliest white settlers from across the Atlantic and finishing in the present day, the series can boast episodes devoted to major conflicts like the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II; the more gradual but still significant developments that helped shape the nation (like western expansion and the mass migration to major cities); and the various elements and forces (the discovery of oil; the growth of industry, engineering, and infrastructure; the development of the automobile and other means of mass transportation, and, of course, the accumulation of vast economic and military might) that combined to make the United States the world’s dominant superpower in the 20th century and beyond. To the filmmakers’ credit, the darker aspects of this history–slavery and racial strife, the treatment of Native Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII–are not given short shrift. And while much of the material is dealt with in fairly broad strokes, there are also various enlightening details in each chapter. Who knew that George Washington established a network of spies who wrote notes in invisible ink in order to deceive the British, or that the most valuable currency for those who first explored the West was beaver pelts?

A combination of reenactments, photos, CGI, models, and other elements delivers a great deal of information here, along with frequent references to Americans’ pioneer spirit, devotion to hard work, and belief that if you can dream it, you can do it. Yet this isn’t an especially scholarly document. The events depicted, from the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere’s midnight ride to the Alamo and the Gettysburg Address, not to mention more lurid tales like the Donner Party and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, should be familiar to those with even a cursory knowledge of US history. The emphasis on star power, be it the comments from a parade of talking heads including actors, musicians, politicians (President Barack Obama among them), athletes, soldiers, and so on, or the focus on charismatic historical figures like John Brown, Daniel Boone, and many others, reflects our celebrity-obsessed culture. And the constant hyperbole (narrator Liev Schreiber intones some variation of “What’s about to happen will change things forever!” at least half a dozen times in the first episode alone) becomes tedious. Then again, considering the number of Americans who can’t find their own country on a map, presenting the material like a dramatic TV show instead of textbook was a shrewd idea. –Sam Graham, Amazon.Com Review

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Review

First off, I am well aware that this documentary is not perfect. Having studied history, I feel that this documentary was lacking in some parts. Still, this series is solid and tight.

I learned a lot of neat trivia from this that I had not known before. This documentary feels to be geared more towards beginners, rather than scholars. If you’re a history expert, you will find some parts lacking. (I am not a expert, but I do love history) but you will also most likely also learn some new things here. This would be a fun documentary for middle or high school students, as well as people who would like a basic (NOT a complete) overview of American history. I mean, it’s impossible to give a complete overview of 400 years of history in twelve episodes, (less than twelve hours when you take out the commercials)

I can’t say that I enjoyed all of the guest speakers, but some of them were rather relevant. Donald Trump talked about the Great Depression. Al Sharpton talked about the role of black people. And so on and so forth. Some of the guest speakers were better suited for their roles than others – I can’t imagine why they would have Sheryl Crowe on this, but Rudy Guilliani was good. My biggest gripe was that they had P Diddy on there. COME ON. Why him? They also had the guy from Pawn Stars in the final episode, and I was excited to see him, but he didn’t really contribute anything worthwhile, what he said didn’t add anything to the documentary.

This is different from other History Channel documentaries in the past. It concentrates more on PEOPLE, not things/artifacts (this is why it’s called The Story of *Us*) and the struggles, trials, and tribulations of a growing country. Yeah, this series did not say much about World War 1 or the War of 1812, but remember, the History Channel has separate documentary series on all different wars and other things, so if you wish for a more complete overview on a particular war or event, you can search the History Channel site or YouTube for documentaries that are more specific on one subject. This is not a documentary about war or politics, but how we have changed through our history, what innovations effected these changes (the Transcontinental Railroad, the Model-T and assembly line production, etc)

The writing’s solid and fairly well-written. If you’re looking for a documentary that is fun and interesting to watch, this is the one for you. Kids will also enjoy this. My roomate (who’s not a geek like me) found herself enjoying this and learning a lot from it even though history isn’t what she is interested in. I will say that some things became more clear for me in this documentary – some ‘aha! I get it now!’ moments. A few parts were repetitive, but overall the series moved at a smooth pace.

If I had to grade this, I’d give it a solid B. It might not be History Channel’s best series, but for those of you wishing to learn something new or want a different perspective on American history, it’s worth watching.

It would be cool to see a ‘Story Of Us’ for other countries, though since most countries are older than America (China’s history is over 5000 years old) that would be a difficult task that needs to be carried out carefully (meaning no celebrity speakers who have nothing to add to the documentary!) – M, Amazon.Com Customer Review

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Crimson Dawn

Book One of the Darklife Saga by Ronnie Massey

Two Women Hunting A Rouge Vampire

Vampire Valeria Trumaine must confront old demons and face new possibilities as she struggles to bring a rouge vampire to justice. Her best friend and powerful Sidhe princess, Irulan, joins the hunt. Valeria will find that Irulan’s motives for keeping her safe are not what she thinks. And soon she is faced with an undeniable attraction that makes her question everything she knew about herself.

CRIMSON DAWN by Ronnie Massey is not just another vampire novel. Yes, the story line includes the favorites of all young adults – plus those who stayed young-at-heart – such as vampires, werewolves, witches, and fairies, but they represent a framework that is seamlessly incorporated in a captivating story that is well worth to be characterized as extraordinary. [Read More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

ESPN began as an outrageous gamble with a lineup that included Australian Rules Football, rodeo, and a rinky-dinky clip show called Sports Center. Today the empire stretches far beyond television into radio, magazines, mobile phones,the internet, video games and more, while ESPN’s personalities have become global superstars to rival the sports icons they cover. Chris Berman, Robin Roberts, Keith Olbermann, Hannah Storm, Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Stuart Scott, Erin Andrews, Mike Ditka, Bob Knight, and scores of others speak openly about the games, shows, scandals, gambling addictions, bitter rivalries, and sudden suspensions that make up the network’s soaring and stormy history. The result is a wild, smart, effervescent story of triumph, genius, ego, and the rise of an empire unlike any television had ever seen.

About the Authors

James Andrew Miller is the author of Running in Place: Inside the Senate and Live from New York. He has also written for the New York Times, Life, the Washington Post and Newsweek. His various positions in television include Senior Executive Producer of “Anderson Cooper 360″ and Executive VP of Original Programming at USA Network. He lives in Bucks County, PA.

Tom Shales won his Pultizer Prize for television criticism in the Washington Post. He is the author of On the Air!, Legends, and Live from New York, and has written for publications such as Esquire, Playboy, Life,Interview, among others. He lives in McLean, Virgina.

Review

If you love ESPN and the various commentators and personalities that have appeared on its TV programs over the years, you will probably love this lengthy collection of literally hundreds of short (more often than not, a page or less) interviews and first-person discussions from the likes of people you’re very likely to know, such as Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Bob Ley, Suzy Kolber, Beano Cook, Lee Corso, John Saunders, Tom Jackson and dozens upon dozens more. There are also interviews with important (to ESPN), but less well know figures like Bill and Scott Rasmussen, Loren Matthews, Steve Anderson and (again) many, many more. All told, you’ve got over 700 pages of interesting tidbits, news, opinions, gossip, rivalries and so forth.

Opinions will vary, I suspect, but on the whole I think most ESPN fans will enjoy the very candid interviews. Be aware, though, even some of the heartiest fans may find so many stories a bit overwhelming–like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant. If you’re not interested in the specifics of the ESPN story, then save yourself some money, because you may feel disappointed with a book that is long and so completely focused on ESPN’s past and present. (Or buy it for your favorite ESPN fan as a gift.) The chapters reveal the book’s historical emphasis:

1. Blood: 1978 – 1979
2. The Utility of Daring: 1980 – 1986
3. Ripeness Is All: 1987 – 1991
4. Manifest Destiny: 1992 – 1994
5. Jonah: 1995 – 2000
6. The Garden of Forking Points: 2001 – 2004
7. Reconciling the Dream: 2005 – 2008
8. Parade of Horribles: 2009 and beyond

Simply put, if a very detailed history of ESPN is your interest, then this book is certainly worth your serious consideration. Just remember–this is an ESPN history, not a sports history.

One more thing: ESPN is a good example of a new enterprise seemingly coming out of nowhere and becoming a major business known around the world–all in a relatively short amount of time. Congratulations to all the people who made ESPN possible. This is their story. – AdamSmythe, Amazon.Com Customer Review

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Imperator

The Life of Gaius Julius Caesar

A Novel for Young Adults by Philip Katz

“Imperator – The Life of Gaius Julius Caesar” by Philip Katz is a fictional recreation of the life of the greatest of all Romans, Gaius Julius Caesar. It is a personal memoir, the inside story of his world as viewed through his eyes, written in the first person, suppressed by Caesar’s successors, only to be rediscovered in modern times. [More...]

Available in all good bookstores and Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and more.

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In Bon Temps, everyone has something to hide. But when new threats emerge, no one can conceal the secrets of their past. After Sookie discovers Bill was kidnapped, she heads to Mississippi, where she becomes entangled in a world ruled by werewolves and a powerful Vampire King. Eric is also drawn to the King’s domain to settle an old score; Jason falls for a mysterious woman; Lafayette can’t avoid love or demons; and Sam uncovers the truth about his birth family. It all leads up to the revelation of the series…Sookie’s true identity.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Editorial Review

The 12 episodes composing True Blood: The Complete Third Season are either the best yet or the most ridiculous, depending on one’s opinion of the increasing number of monsters entering the scene. As last season saw an onslaught of pagan and ancient Greek-derived “supernaturals,” as they’re called by Bon Temps’ citizens, this season welcomes everything from werewolves, to vampire royalty, to that surprise-being that Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) finally discovers she shares genes with. While the first two seasons centered on the spicy love affair between Sookie and Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), this season branches out once again from the vampire-human cultural blender. From the first episode, “Bad Blood,” when Bill is whisked off to meet the King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare), whose villainous scheme will inform all ensuing episodes, one gets less of Sookie and Bill, and more of everything else.

For example, Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) reveals himself this time around, starting in the episodes “Beautifully Broken” and “It Hurts Me Too,” in which he tracks down members of his past and in turn meets some new family, like his mischievous brother, Tommy Mickens (Marshall Allman). Following up on Eggs’s death at the end of season two, Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) and Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) have multiple police dramas, especially in later episodes like “I Smell a Rat” and “Fresh Blood.” This season, too, presents some of life’s greatest challenges to Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley), as if she hadn’t suffered enough after her new love Eggs was shot. Hoyt (Jim Parrack) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), as a foil couple to Sookie and Bill’s vampire-human coupling, have enormous hurdles to jump over simply to continue dating. While all of these dramas make the characters in Bon Temps come alive like never before, the silliest of the plots continues on, unfortunately, as Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq (Evan Rachel Wood) has to battle King Edgington for Vamp-Blood sales territory. On the up side of that chess-game narrative, Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) and his femme fatale, Pam De Beaufort (Kristin Bauer), play much larger roles this season, and in the finale, “Evil Is Going On,” Eric not only discovers his deep past history but struggles through his rockiest present dangers thus far.

Interestingly, though Sookie is still the protagonist, True Blood appears to be shifting to a wider view, emphasizing the overall community and the effects supernatural warfare has on Bon Temps collectively. Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis), still one of the most charming characters, discovers more about his past, thanks to nurse Jesus Velasquez (Kevin Alejandro), and Jason too discovers a new calling, thanks to Crystal Norris (Lindsay Pulsipher). If anything, this season of past recollections and the realizations of future callings will allow for this excellent series to carry on into infinity, as magical creatures continue to grace this setting enriched with full-fledged characters. Vampires were, as the cast confirms this time around, only the beginning. –Trinie Dalton, Amazon.Com Review

Review

Following the hedonistic reign of terror of the redoubtable Maryann, the residents of Bon Temps are once again trying to pull their lives back together. For Sookie Stackhouse, events are complicated by the disappearance of her vampire lover Bill Compton, the emergence of a bunch of werewolves on the scene and the machinations of the vampire King of Mississippi. Meanwhile, Sookie’s brother Jason pursues a new career in law-enforcement, Sam Merlott tracks down his real parents and Jessica, now broken up with Hoyt, embraces her vampire side more freely. Meanwhile (again), Lafayette gets a boyfriend called Jesus (True Blood? Controversial? Never!) and there are some meth-dealing hicks around causing mischief. And there’s this werewolf called Alcide who fancies Sookie and spends a fair bit of time with his shirt off. And Tara gets emotionally abused (yet again) by Thomas Cromwell from The Tudors. And a whole ton of other stuff happened which I’m forgetting right now.

True Blood has always been a nutty, camp, somewhat trashy but always resolutely entertaining show, but its third season is nothing less than a sustained, full-scale assault on the viewer’s senses and sanity. Learning from the pacing problems in Season 2 (where the latter part of the season degenerated into a tiresome parade of filler orgy scenes for no discernible plot reason), Alan Ball has massively overcompensated, packing every single instant of this season with surprising plot revelations, new characters, surprise reappearances of old characters (including dead ones), new ideas, new races, new concepts and, indeed, the kitchen sink. It’s certainly not a dull season, but it is one that is overloaded to the point of near-incoherence.

If it’s possible to pick out a central thread from this anarchic and demented tapestry of pure chaos, it’s the attempt by the vampire King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, to reverse the policy of appeasement by vampires towards humans and have vampires seize control of the world. Edgington is as barmy as a box of frogs on ecstasy (but still a long way from being the craziest character on the show this season) but is extraordinarily entertaining, played with scene-chewing relish by Denis O’Hare. His lover Talbot, played by Theo Alexander, is almost as amusing. This storyline, where Eric and Bill pretend (or do they?) to defect from the Queen of Lousiana’s side to Edgington’s and political machinations unfold at his stately home, is the definite highlight of the year, despite the presence of a number of extremely cheesy actors playing ‘evil’ werewolves who are allied to Edgington.

The werewolf storyline otherwise doesn’t really go anywhere, despite the pre-season hype touting this as ‘the werewolf season’. We do get a promising new regular character in the form of ‘good’ werewolf Alcide (Joe Manganiello) who manages to remain likable despite inexplicably being attracted to Sookie, who is at her most annoying this year. Hopefully he gets more to do next year.

Other storylines range from the mind-bogglingly inane (the meth-dealing hillbilly plot is almost breathtaking in its utter lack of enjoyability) to the compelling (Jessica and Hoyt continue to have the most believable relationship and best chemistry of any pairing on the show). Tara gets emotionally and physically abused and manipulated again to the point where the viewer is in severe danger of losing the last vestiges of sympathy and respect for the character. This story is somewhat saved by James Frain’s completely bonkers performance as mentally unstable vampire Franklin Mott (who makes the King of Mississippi look like a stable and reliable fellow), but the writers need to stop using Tara as their emotional punch-bag, especially since they relent with her cousin Lafayette and give him a reasonably happy storyline, complete with a new love interest (which was great up until the hippy-trippy voodoo vision stuff kicked in).

There’s also a series of plot revelations that hark back to the beginning of Season 1 and earlier, particularly retconning the backstories and motivations for Sam and Bill. In the former case this is laughably unbelievable, whilst the latter works better. Whilst Sookie is rather unlikable this year, Stephen Moyer’s performance seems to improve once Bill is given more layers and made into a more duplicitous character than we first thought he was.

Overall, this season of True Blood is watchable, but also often headache-inducingly overwrought. The ‘Arlene’s baby’ storyline is unnecessary and tedious, as is the story about Jason’s latest romance. The less said about the introduction of the Fae (supernatural beings who apparently dwell within the mystical realm of a Timotei advert) the better. However, we also get a lot more screen-time for Eric and Pam, which is great, and we also get one of the most gloriously demented TV cliffhangers of all time (you’ll know it when you see it).

True Blood’s third season (***) is a cataclysmic explosion of sleaze, storylines and characters, some of which are compelling and some of which are barely watchable tedium. Sorting the good from the bad is hard work this year, but the show is never less than watchable, if also frequently achieving far less than its potential. – A. Whitehead, Amazon.Com Customer Review

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Vampire Ascending

by Lorelei Bell Sabrina Strong is a Touch Clairvoyant who knows a secret. She knows her mother was turned into a vampire when Sabrina was ten. Now that she is grown up, a powerful magnate in the Chicago business world hires her to reveal the identity of who relentlessly murders vampires in his ultra-modern stronghold of a hotel. [Read More...] – Including an excerpt of the first chapter.

Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

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As the 2005 theatrical release of Serenity made clear, Firefly was a science fiction concept that deserved a second chance. Devoted fans (or “Browncoats”) knew it all along, and with this well-packaged DVD set, those who missed the show’s original broadcasts can see what they missed. Creator Joss Whedon’s ambitious science-fiction Western (Whedon’s third series after Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) was canceled after only 11 of these 14 episodes had aired on the Fox network, but history has proven that its demise was woefully premature. Whedon’s generic hybrid got off to a shaky start when network executives demanded an action-packed one-hour premiere (“The Train Job”); in hindsight the intended two-hour pilot (also titled “Serenity,” and oddly enough, the final episode aired) provides a better introduction to the show’s concept and splendid ensemble cast. Obsessive fans can debate the quirky logic of combining spaceships with direct parallels to frontier America (it’s 500 years in the future, and embattled humankind has expanded into the galaxy, where undeveloped “outer rim” planets struggle with the equivalent of Old West accommodations), but Whedon and his gifted co-writers and directors make it work, at least well enough to fashion a credible context from the incongruous culture-clashing of past, present, and future technologies, along with a polyglot language (the result of two dominant superpowers) that combines English with an abundance of Chinese slang.

What makes it work is Whedon’s delightfully well-chosen cast and their nine well-developed characters–a typically Whedon-esque extended family–each providing a unique perspective on their adventures aboard Serenity, the junky but beloved “Firefly-class” starship they call home. As a veteran of the disadvantaged Independent faction’s war against the all-powerful planetary Alliance (think of it as Underdogs vs. Overlords), Serenity captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) leads his compact crew on a quest for survival. They’re renegades with an amoral agenda, taking any job that pays well, but Firefly’s complex tapestry of right and wrong (and peace vs. violence) is richer and deeper than it first appears. Tantalizing clues about Blue Sun (an insidious mega-corporation with a mysteriously evil agenda), its ties to the Alliance, and the traumatizing use of Serenity’s resident stowaway (Summer Glau) as a guinea pig in the development of advanced warfare were clear indications Firefly was heading for exciting revelations that were precluded by the series’ cancellation. Fortunately, the big-screen Serenity (which can be enjoyed independently of the series) ensured that Whedon’s wild extraterrestrial west had not seen its final sunset. Its very existence confirms that these 14 episodes (and enjoyable bonus features) will endure as irrefutable proof Fox made a glaring mistake in canceling the series. –Jeff Shannon, Amazon.Com Review

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Review

I despise television. I even gave it up last year, and now only see a few shows a friend and I watch together. “The West Wing”. “24″. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

Until last fall. Then I saw “Firefly”, named somewhat whimsically about a cargo ship whose end lights up when it accelerates. But this is no flashy futuristic show about technical wonders, but rather a very nitty-gritty character study of nine very individual people.

Joss Whedon, who created “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”, had an idea for a science fiction show unique to that “Southern California born/spent time in Britain as a teenager” background of his: He read a book about the ground level grunts of the American Civil War called “The Rebel Angels” and wanted to do a TV series about the people who didn’t make the history books: the people history stepped on. He wanted to do a story set in a future about a ship and where it went. Not a vast engine of war or a great vessel of exploration and diplomacy, but an old tramp steamer of a ship, so small it didn’t even have a mounted gun, that made its way through thick and thin by taking any job, anywhere, no questions asked.

The nine people on board the Firefly-class ship “Serenity” aren’t rich, famous, particularly smart or particularly gifted, for the most part. They all have pasts, and not all of them are comfortable about talking about themselves. They live in the aftermath of a major war that lead to the forceable unification of all of humanity, and not all of them were on the same side. The ship’s name, “Serenity” is that of the climactic battle of that war, and they find themselves still trapped psychologically in a war that ended six years before. They have doubts, fears, old pains and new concerns, like where their next job is coming from and whether they’ll live through it, because the few people that can hire them and will hire them have scant concern for ethics, the law or good manners. Sometimes your employer is more dangerous to you than the law you’re trying to avoid.

And this is a show about the outskirts: there are laser guns, hoverships and advanced technology, but few can afford them. Big Dumb Bullets are still cheaper than Flashy Powered Blasters, and on the frontier reliability is more important than fashion, particularly when the other fellow has a habit of firing first. A horse will do you better than a powersled if you have lots of grasslands but no repair facilities or money to pay. A man dressed like a cowboy may have artificial organs and a revolver, or own a space station and need to pick up advanced medicines or even transfer a herd of cows. “Serenity” flies between the Core worlds of advanced technology and the newly terraformed Rim worlds, where people are grateful to have a wooden roof overhead.

It is this peculiar mix of the old and new that fascinates those looking for the unexpected: the comically serious and the deadly comical. Any given episode will shift you from adventure to terror, farce to drama, slapstick to deep thought and a sense of “boy, I didn’t see THAT coming” without a sense that no-one is at the wheel, or that the screenwriter is merely playing with your expectations. More importantly, there are no “cheats”: every action more deeply reveals the characters and who they are becoming. Unlike the broadcasts, this DVD shows the episodes, including three new ones, in their intended order.

“Firefly” is seldom what it first appears to be, either in terms of appearance or behaviour. No plot works out as expected, and people can surprise you. Joss Whedon indicated that “Buffy” was about growing up, “Angel” is about getting to work and “Firefly” is about being grown up and the choices you have to make as an adult. It’s not like any other show you’ve seen: a story of the nine people who find themselves on board a ship, looking into the black of space, and seeing nine different things looking back at them.

Even if you’ve seen all the first season episodes broadcast on FOX and are waiting for the forthcoming 2005 Universal motion picture, this DVD has all episodes to date, including the three not previously broadcast in the U.S., and such extras as cast and creator commentaries, a blooper reel to equal any other show in history and a few other easter eggs here and there.

Like such great television shows as “Hill Street Blues”, “Babylon 5″, “Homicide: Life on the Streets” or “The Supranos”, this will introduce you to people and places that will enrich you and your concept of the world. I still hate television. I’m buying this DVD. – Blair A. Petterson, Amazon.Com Customer Review

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Vampire Ascending

by Lorelei Bell Sabrina Strong is a Touch Clairvoyant who knows a secret. She knows her mother was turned into a vampire when Sabrina was ten. Now that she is grown up, a powerful magnate in the Chicago business world hires her to reveal the identity of who relentlessly murders vampires in his ultra-modern stronghold of a hotel. [Read More...] – Including an excerpt of the first chapter.

Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

Some know her as the star of the 1960s TV show That Girl, or creator of Free to Be… You and Me, or perhaps major fund-raiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Thomas, author of five bestselling books, here focuses on a role she’s had her entire life: daughter. Laughter was the soundtrack for Thomas’s formative years in 1950s Beverly Hills. Her father, comedian Danny Thomas, regularly had funny friends–including Bob Hope, Sid Caesar, and George Burns–over to the family home. The author, actress, feminist, and philanthropist shares fond memories of enjoying and learning from these comedy luminaries, and of being a Hollywood kid long before game-changers like the Internet and cable TV. She chronicles her path from childhood to adulthood; particularly interesting tidbits include her meeting and marrying Phil Donahue, becoming friends with Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug, and, with her siblings, “producing” her father’s funeral. But this book is more than a well-written memoir. Thomas also includes interviews with comedy powerhouses galore, from Tina Fey to Alan Alda, Chris Rock to Ben and Jerry Stiller. On the whole, this book offers a delightful firsthand look at how comedy has become integral to American culture–and the way it’s shaped one woman’s colorful life. – Publishers Weekly

Thomas, star of the classic sitcom That Girl and daughter of comedy legend Danny Thomas, has taken an interesting approach to the usual Hollywood memoir. Chapters exploring her life as the daughter of comedy royalty, and her struggles to establish an independent identity for herself, alternate with profiles of contemporary comedians (Seinfeld, Leno, Stiller, Rock, Crystal, Rivers, Williams, Fey, Wright, and Colbert, among others). We see how her father inspired her, and we also see how he inspired the professionals who came after him. Thomas’ personal stories are heartwarming and entertaining. Her father, who came by his legendary status by dint of hard work and perfect delivery, comes across as a driven man who always made time for his family and who never made any secret of the fact that he loved his little girl. It was a privileged childhood, to be sure, and you can’t help being a little envious of someone who grew up around the likes of Milton Berle, George Burns, and Sid Caesar. The profiles of other comedians allow us to see Danny Thomas through others’ eyes, too, offering a different perspective on the man and his legacy. An engaging, highly informative memoir—definitely not the routine show-biz autobiography. –David Pitt, Booklist

Review

Almost all of us have a set of traits that attract us to others, and that we value in others: honesty, intelligence, attractiveness, and, to many, the most important–a sense of humor. Marlo Thomas’ sixth book is a paean to humor. Ms. Thomas is the daughter of comedian/actor/St. Jude Children’s Hospital founder Danny Thomas. Her book is unusual in its approach and in its style, and extremely enjoyable.

First, it is a memoir, a love story, a thank-you letter to her family, and a personal glimpse into her childhood as one of Danny Thomas’ three children. But interspersed with the marvelous, intimate stories (about her drum-playing grandmother, her Catholic family, her acting successes and failures) are interviews with current comics and deeply moving homages to the comics of the past. So, a few chapters about her early life, Thomas segues into an interview with Jerry Seinfeld. A discussion about the years her father spent “On the Road” is followed by a wonderful conversation with Robin Williams. Newer comics are referenced and interviewed as well: Tina Fey, Chris Rock ,and Steven Wright all have one-on-one time with Thomas.

She makes us laugh, cry, and trip happily down memory lane with the great comedic geniuses of the past–Milton, Sid, Jan, George, Phil, Red, and the Bobs (Hope and Newhart). She remembers at-home dinners with these stellar humorists and discusses Hollywood from the point of view of someone raised there. As she does the storytelling, she also shows us behind the scenes of her own coming of age: That Girl, Free to Be…You and Me, her feminist roots and friendship with Gloria Steinem (and the founding of the Ms. Foundation,) her 30-year marriage to Phil Donahue, and her constant willingness and drive to be on the cutting edge of helping children be all they can be.

Moreover, the jokes are fabulous, some given by the comics she interviews and some just sprinkled hither and yon between chapters and within the delightful, distinctive stories of a life well-lived. So even as you feel a bit tearful about her father’s death, the joke about the clown’s funeral, in the interview with Steven Wright, will have you laughing in amusement (or bemusement!) She talks a lot about her father, their close relationship, and her ongoing work with her father’s dream-child–St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN.

Thomas’ book gives us the chance to feel touched, reminiscent, entertained, enlightened, charmed and very involved with the narrative itself. At 72 (her 73rd birthday is in November), she remains the vibrant, peppy girl we remember from “That Girl”–and yet her personal growth and feminism was and is a beacon to baby-boomer women who watched her life avidly for strength and encouragement.

“I was a lucky kid,” Marlo writes, “to have a seat at the table…with those comic warriors who had the audacity to stand up in a room full of strangers with the conviction that they could bring them all together in laughter. Those stories of those times have been humming in my head all of my life, and I decided at last to write them down.” I am so glad she did!

by Laura Strathman Hulka
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

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Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

Now Available As Paperback And Kindle Edition!

Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

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This enthralling BBC series examines “the lengths living beings go to to stay alive,” in the words of Sir David Attenborough (Oprah Winfrey narrates the Discovery Channel version). Aided by breathtaking high-definition cinematography, the makers of Planet Earth explore the more colorful strategies the world’s creatures employ to procreate, evade predators, and obtain nourishment. Cameras travel though the air, under the water, and right into the faces of insects, like the alien visage of the stalk-eyed fly. Except for “Challenges of Life” and “Hunters and Hunted,” each episode covers a different category, such as mammals and birds. Among the more memorable images: three cheetahs move with the relentless rhythm of mobsters, a school of flying fish glides through the air with the grace of ballerinas, and a Jesus Christ lizard skips across the water, like, well, you know. The strangest sights range from a pebble toad bouncing away from a spider like a rubber ball and brown-tufted capuchin monkeys pounding palm nuts with stone tools like the apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Witty writing and skillful editing, which distills thousands of hours of footage, make the learning go down easy (at one point, Sir David references Jurassic Park, which featured his brother, Richard).

If the sound effects seem overamped, George Fenton’s score is always on the money, adding humor and suspense at crucial moments (martial drums for the mud skippers, woozy brass for the Darwin’s beetle). Nonetheless, delicate sensibilities may find some sequences disturbing, as when Komodo dragons feed on a water buffalo or when a leopard seal dines on a penguin (according to Attenborough, the Komodo siege caused the camera operators “emotional turmoil”). More often, the filmmakers capture the moment of impact before moving on. The set comes complete with 10 featurettes on the four-year production. –Kathleen C. Fennessy, Amazon.Com Review

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Review

Over the past two decades, the BBC Natural History Unit has become a prolific documentary factory of the highest order, with ever-improving skills and increasing dedication. Some of their productions are relatively minor, but this is one of their flagships, and you can tell this because they use David Attenborough as the narrator (who is still in top form).

The theme for this 10-part series is the challenges of life and how various animals and plants solve them. This includes unusual and extreme food gathering techniques, hunting strategies, surprising evolutionary weapons and defenses, adaptations to harsh environments, mating rituals, and the lengths they go to in order to pick the right breeding partners.

Each episode covers this vast topic in specific areas: The first episode is an overview and top-20 hit parade of the upcoming episodes. Each of the ensuing episodes then cover a branch of the animal kingdom, including reptiles, insects, mammals, plants, birds, fish, with additional specialized episodes covering hunting, sea-life and primates.

This will obviously overlap with many of their previous releases, especially The Trials of Life, Attenborough’s series covering the animal kingdom, and even The Living Planet and Planet Earth. But their approach here is interestingly well-chosen: Previously covered footage and educational information is usually summarized, before continuing with the more obscure, the upgraded, and the exciting new details.

For example, The Private Life of Plants is obviously much more comprehensive and educational, but this show’s episode on plants features things like a 60-second time-lapse shot of growing life in the woodlands that took two years to create, new information on the strange shape of the Dragon’s Blood tree, and more footage on the Venus Flytrap, this time its dual use of insects complete with tiny sound recordings.

Now, I have a pet peeve about repetition. This show’s annoyingly useless overview episode, and the fact that much of the information and footage lacks freshness and has been covered before, all tempt me to rate this show lower. But the combination of nicely summarized educational information, a good theme and structure, new amazing cinematography that uses the latest skills and technology, and some new exciting footage that I don’t think I have ever seen before, compels me to give this top marks. This is a much better release than Planet Earth.

In addition, while many nature documentaries have elements of drama and laughs, this show has more than usual, and you will find yourself frequently touched, horrified or very amused by all of the amazing behaviour on screen, all obviously very real.

The BBC also continue their recent trend that devotes the last 10 minutes of each episode to a ‘making of’ featurette. These are usually just as interesting as the footage and you can always stop watching if you aren’t interested, so I suppose I can’t complain. But keep in mind that if you subtract the overview episode and diary scenes, you are actually getting 450 minutes instead of 600.

In summary: If you are relatively new to BBC documentaries, this will amaze you to no end AND provide a nice informative summary of life on earth. If you are a seasoned watcher of Attenborough’s series, you can still enjoy this series as a combination of educational summary, a provider of new, complementary and upgraded information with some of the most beautiful, rare and amazing footage ever recorded, and even as a highly entertaining natural drama and comedy, or ‘nature dramedy’, if I may coin a phrase.

However, if you place emphasis on educational and more comprehensive information, Attenborough’s previous Life series still reign supreme and will probably remain unequalled for a long, long time. - Zev Toledano, Amazon.Com Customer Review

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Vampire Ascending

by Lorelei Bell Sabrina Strong is a Touch Clairvoyant who knows a secret. She knows her mother was turned into a vampire when Sabrina was ten. Now that she is grown up, a powerful magnate in the Chicago business world hires her to reveal the identity of who relentlessly murders vampires in his ultra-modern stronghold of a hotel. [Read More...] – Including an excerpt of the first chapter.

Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

Welcome to a Mad New World. Season Four of Mad Men, 3-time Emmy® winner for Outstanding Drama Series and winner of 3 consecutive Golden Globes®, returns for a new year rife with possibilities. Last season stunned fans with its cliffhanger finale, as Don Draper’s professional and personal lives unexpectedly imploded. In Season 4, Jon Hamm and the rest of the breakout ensemble continue to captivate us as they grapple with an uncertain new reality.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Review

The excellence continues with this fourth season of MAD MEN. Matthew Weiner, its creator, was one of the writers on the SOPRANOS. He hovers over every detail of MAD MEN, getting it absolutely right, just as creator David Chase did for the SOPRANOS. The first choice he made was absolutely insisting that Jon Hamm had to play the lead. Everyone thought Weiner was crazy insisting on an unknown. Result? Jon Hamm is now a major tv star and probably going to be a major star period. Next bit of historical marvel was that HBO turned this show down so that Weiner took it to an upstart cable channel, AMC, and ended up putting AMC on the map. For those of you who don’t know it, this show IS Weiner and this was nowhere more evident than at the 2010 Emmy Awards show where he walked up to the stage to receive Emmy after Emmy including the best drama show one, the big one. I am dwelling on this point because often viewers do not realize that it is one person off camera who is making the whole thing happen. That is certainly the case here.

Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm) continues to be the fulcrum for the show; everything pivots around him. However, it is a very rich band of characters indeed who do that pivoting. In season four, everyone is coming into his or her own, whether for good or ill. Draper himself goes through a huge melting down crisis post divorce, flailing around now that what little identity he had seems gone. His entire identity now comes down to his job, which is finding a way to brilliantly project falsity, which is a metaphor for his entire life.

Betty, his ex, is becoming more of what she has been in the prior three seasons. More brittle, more vicious, more intent on achieving her ever elusive goal of perfection. This becomes so paramount that one scarcely notices her Grace Kelly like appearance anymore. Her new husband belatedly realizes what a morass he has gotten himself into by marrying her. Her relationship with Sally becomes one of the best of the show. There is a boiling point coming between the two of them which I am awaiting more eagerly than any other plot development,

Don Draper’s secretary also becomes a pivotal force. For half of the show it is an old battleaxe who is just fantastic and then we get a very attractive, very maternal young French Canadian woman. As the show gathers steam towards its end, it becomes apparent that this is a very important character to watch.

Peggy and Joan also remain big characters. Rounding them out as the women of the mid 60s in the work force, is a woman who is the harbinger of things to come. She has her doctorate in psychology and is using it to measure and predict consumer acts in the advertising world. She begins dating Don and Peggy sees her as a role model for herself, a woman much further up in the business world model. Joan is still mired in the head secretarial world and also is stuck with unfinished business with her major weasel of a boss, Roger Sterling.

Don Draper’s nemesis Peter becomes no longer his nemesis but now a comrade in arms. Where once these two were at odds, they now need one another, more than even they realize as Roger Sterling gives them only half the tale of a major crisis. Pete Campbell has changed a great deal as a character and is now a force for stability that once seemed impossible.

The only bad thing about season four is that it ended. For those of us who are in its thrall, that we have to wait until next summer to delve into season five, is a very sad state of affairs indeed. – carol irvin, Amazon.Com Customer Review

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Vampire Ascending

by Lorelei Bell Sabrina Strong is a Touch Clairvoyant who knows a secret. She knows her mother was turned into a vampire when Sabrina was ten. Now that she is grown up, a powerful magnate in the Chicago business world hires her to reveal the identity of who relentlessly murders vampires in his ultra-modern stronghold of a hotel. [Read More...] – Including an excerpt of the first chapter.

Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

Over the past four decades, the landmark NBC hit television series I Dream of Jeannie has delighted generations of audiences and inspired untold numbers of teenage crushes on its beautiful blond star, Barbara Eden. Part pristine Hollywood princess and part classic bombshell, with innocence, strength, and comedic talent to spare, Barbara finally lets Jeannie out of her bottle to tell her whole story.

Jeannie Out of the Bottle takes us behind the scenes of I Dream of Jeannie as well as Barbara’s dozens of other stage, movie, television, and live concert performances. We follow her from the hungry years when she was a struggling studio contract player at 20th Century Fox through difficult weeks trying to survive as a chorus girl at Ciro’s Sunset Strip supper club, from a stint as Johnny Carson’s sidekick on live TV to tangling on-screen and off with some of Hollywood’s most desirable leading men, including Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, and Warren Beatty. From the ups and downs of her relationship with her Jeannie co-star Larry Hagman to a touching meeting with an exquisite and vulnerable Marilyn Monroe at the twilight of her career, readers join Barbara on a thrilling journey through her five decades in Hollywood.

But Barbara’s story is also an intimate and honest memoir of personal tragedy: a stillborn child with her first husband, Michael Ansara; a verbally abusive, drug-addicted second husband; the loss of her beloved mother; and the accidental heroin-induced death of her adult son, just months before his wedding. With candor and poignancy, Barbara reflects on the challenges she has faced, as well as the joys she has experienced and how she has maintained her humor, optimism, and inimitable Jeannie magic throughout the roller-coaster ride of a truly memorable life.

Illustrated with sixteen pages of photographs, including candid family pictures and rare publicity stills, Jeannie Out of the Bottle is a must-have for every fan, old and new.

About the Authors

BARBARA EDEN has been a television, film, and stage actress, and a Las Vegas headliner, for more than five decades. She is best known for her title role in the hit TV series I Dream of Jeannie. She grew up in San Francisco and currently lives in Beverly Hills with her husband, Jon Eicholtz, and their Labradoodle, Djin Djin.

WENDY LEIGH is the New York Times bestselling author of thirteen books, including Life with My Sister Madonna (as co-author) and True Grace: The Life and Times of an American Princess.

Review

Baby boomers with fond memories of the deliciously escapist 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie” will thoroughly enjoy this charming memoir by its star, Barbara Eden. Looking back on a career spanning more than 50 years, the classy and unassuming star has some great stories to share. As an up-and-coming young actress, she met a number of Hollywood notables, and her recollections about Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Groucho Marx, and Lucille Ball are fascinating. Before earning her own sitcom stardom, she played small roles in various popular shows of the 1950s, and the comparison she draws between Lucy and Ann Sothern, who reacted to the pretty newcomer in quite different ways, makes for interesting reading. Though she’s never vindictive or insulting, there’s a bit of spice to Eden’s stories about life with the “Jeannie” company, notably the volatile and peculiar behavior of co-star Larry Hagman. Fans will also enjoy her reminiscences about other members of the “Jeannie” cast including Hayden Rorke and Emmaline Henry. Naturally, no one’s real life could be as sunny and unblemished as a “Jeannie” episode, and Eden writes honestly and movingly about some of her unhappiest times, notably her son’s drug addiction and death at a young age. Those who enjoy her work as a performer will welcome the opportunity to know her better through this endearing and entertaining autobiography. – DavidT, Amazon.Com Customer Review

Barbara Eden decides to let ‘Jeannie Out Of The Bottle’ in her book of memoirs

examiner.com – June 30, 2010 (Excerpt)

Barbara Eden looks fabulous for a 75 year old Jeannie!  The former ‘I Dream Of Jeannie” star has decided to write her memoirs, which will be released in the Spring of 2011.

Barbara Eden’s interview with The NY Times revealed the reason why Barbara claims it has taken her forty years to write this was simple she stated that the thought had frightened her until now. Life as the adorable, doting and sometime mischievous Jeannie was not always fun and games for Eden . The show was a lot of hard work and during that time era she caught in the middle of a ton of controversy over her skimpy belly showing costumes.

You have to remember that it was the 1960′s and this type of public display was considered completely shameful and scandalous, mix that in with the women’s lib movement just starting to get into a full roll and top it off with Jeannie calling Major Nelson ‘Master’ twenty times an episode really added fuel to the fire for Barbara Eden she claims.

Jeannie’s one true love on the five year series  was that of Major Nelson, who was played by actor Larry Hagman. He later went on to star in a huge hit tv drama ‘Dallas ‘ as the conniving and evil J.R. Ewing  oil tycoon. Every episode Jeannie found herself in some kind of crazy and kooky situations involving Major Nelson, Major Healey , Dr. Bellows and the Space program. Corny but entertaining! [Read the full article...]

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Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

From the creators of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote… Match wits with Ellery Queen (Jim Hutton) in all 22 digitally restored, uncut and unedited episodes of this classic NBC series following the exploits of the famed writer as he assists his father, Inspector Richard Queen (David Wayne), in solving the mysteries that baffle the New York City police force.

Guest Stars include: Don Ameche, Dana Andrews, Tom Bosley, George Burns, Joan Collins, Troy Donahue, Anne Francis, Eva Gabor, Larry Hagman, June Lockhart, Robert Loggia, Roddy McDowall, Ed McMahon, Sal Mineo, Donald O’Connor, Dean Stockwell, Dick Van Patten, Vincent Price, Cesar Romero, Betty White, and many more!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Editorial Review

The case of the missing TV series has finally been cracked, but why Ellery Queen lasted only one season (1975-76) and fell into obscurity is a real mystery. Based on the evidence in this six-disc set, this loving homage to the classic murder mystery created by Richard Levinson and William Link was, like their Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, nonviolent and intelligent television of the first order. Set in the 1940s, Ellery Queen stars boyishly charming Jim Hutton, one of the screen’s most likable leading men, as the famed mystery writer and sleuth who helps his father, Inspector Richard Queen (David Wayne), solve the most baffling of cases. The pleasures this series affords are anything but guilty. Each intriguing episode begins with the preview of a murder, a roundup of the suspects (Was it the jealous wife? The dictatorial director?), and an irresistible challenge to viewers to “match wits with Ellery Queen and see if you can guess whodunit.” Before revealing the killer, Ellery breaks the fourth wall to ask if we amateur sleuths at home have the mystery figured out, offering last-minute clues such as, “Once you figure out how, you’ll know who.”

As with Burke’s Law, each episode of Ellery Queen is packed with enough Hollywood legends, venerable character actors, and TV faves to fill The Love Boat. “The Adventure of Veronica’s Veils” features George Burns as the victim (“I didn’t die of natural causes,” he announces via a filmed presentation following his demise), William Demarest, Don Porter, comedian Jack Carter, Hayden Rorke (Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie), and John Hillerman in his recurring role as radio detective Simon Brimmer, forever trying to one-up Queen. Queen himself makes it a point “to be observant and pay attention to details,” particularly for that “dying clue which makes absolutely no sense.” You’d be advised to do the same. The intricately plotted stories turn on the most arcane of clues and circumstances, as in the pilot episode “Too Many Suspects,” in which solving a fashion designer’s murder hinges on the reenactment of a TV news broadcast (maybe that explains the one-season run). An interview with Link, not very lively, but interesting, is included as a bonus feature. –Donald Liebenson, Amazon.Com Review

Amazon.Com Customer Review

The 1975 Cult-Classic TV whodunit Ellery Queen starring the brilliant Jim Hutton is finally being released on DVD in its entirety, thanks to E1 Entertainment.

The series was based on the popular classic Ellery Queen mystery books from the 1930′s. The show lasted only one season on NBC, but has remained a fan favorite.

Set in the post-WWII 1947, the show closely followed the format of the Ellery Queen mystery novels, which carefully laid out the clues before the reader/audience and invited them to attempt to solve the mystery before Ellery Queen presented the solution.

The show premiered March 23, 1975 with a telepilot, “Too Many Suspects,” which was adapted from the book, The Fourth Side of the Triangle. Beloved veteran character actor, David Wayne, portrayed Ellery’s crusty but loveable father, Inspector Richard Queen throughout the series. Wayne perfectly delivered folksy dialog ostensibly from the 1940′s like, “Why don’t we cut all the banana oil?”

Hutton (the father of actor Timothy Hutton) played Ellery to perfection, blending absent-minded goofiness with genuine emotional depth and boyish charm. Together, he and Wayne had the perfect on-screen chemistry, creating an authentic charm that remains undiminished after all of these years.

In all, 22 fun one-hour episodes followed beginning on Sept. 11, 1975, the last show airing on April 4, 1976.

In the early Queen books, just prior to the presentation of the solution to the mystery, a “Challenge To The Reader” was issued during which the suspects and clues were reviewed and the reader challenged to guess the solution to the crime.

This tradition was preserved in the series, when Hutton as Ellery turns from the scene to the camera and speaks directly to viewers. This occurs prior to the commercial break that led into the final act. Ellery provides a brief recap, then invites the audience to add up the clues, and to identify the guilty party.

The final act always employed the time-honored detective cliché of calling all of the suspects together (it was made famous by Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, who often gathered the crowd in together in the drawing room) with Ellery presenting the solution to the group, frequently upstaging and skewering the solution proposed by whichever rival sleuth was also in the episode.

Rounding out the cast was John Hillerman, who portrayed Radio Mystery Master, Simon Brimmer. Brimmer constantly tried to upstage the Inspector and also embarrass Ellery by solving the crime first — and he always failed.

In addition, Ken Swofford portrayed yellow journalist Frank Flannigan; Tom Reese, as the stalwart and stone-face Lt. Thomas Velie, the Inspector’s right-hand man; and Nina Roman, who portrayed the Inspector’s secretary, Grace, in seven episodes.

The show as also known for its clever opening montage, in which an announcer relays that this so-and-so is about to be murdered. Who is guilty? Is it …? Next, each suspect (guest star) is shown in a brief clip, speaking a short humorous phrase. It ends with, “Match wits with Ellery Queen and see if you can guess whodunit!”

The series was created by the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, who also created the Classic TV mystery/police shows Mannix, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote.

“Too Many Suspects,” the pilot episode, IS included in this six-disc complete series boxed set entitiled: “Ellery Queen Mysteries.” The other 22 episodes included are: The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne; The Adventure of the Lover’s Leap; The Adventure of the Chinese Dog; The Adventure of the Comic Book Crusader; The Adventure of the 12th Floor Express; The Adventure of Miss Aggie’s Farewell Performance; The Adventure of Colonel Niven’s Memoirs; The Adventure of the Mad Tea Party; The Adventure of Veronica’s Veils; The Adventure of the Pharaoh’s Curse; The Adventure of the Blunt Instrument; The Adventure of the Black Falcon; The Adventure of the Sunday Punch; The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer; The Adventure of the Wary Witness; The Adventure of the Judas Tree; The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario; The Adventure of the Two-Faced Woman; The Adventure of the Tyrant of Tin Pan Alley; The Adventure of Caesar’s Last Sleep; The Adventure of the Hard-Hearted Huckster; and The Adventure of the Disappearing Dagger.

In addition to these fabulous episodes, which have been completely remastered, E1 Entertainment has included a special collector’s book in the set.

Guest stars truly included the cream of 1970′s acting talent on the small and big screens, including: Kim Hunter, Ray Milland, Tim O’Connor, Gail Strickland, Joan Collins, David Doyle, Ray Walston, Anne Francis, Don Ameche, Susan Strasberg, Orson Bean, Dee Wallace, Lynda Day George, Tom Bosley, Pat Harrington Jr., Eve Arden, Bert Parks, Betty White, Robbert Loggia, Rene Auberjonois, Pernell Roberts, Jim Backus, Larry Hagman, George Burns, Hayden Rorke, June Lockhart, John Larroquette, Eva Gabor, Dean Stockwell, Tab Hunter, Roddy McDowall, Susan Stafford, William Schallert, Robert Alda, Arthur Godfrey, Ed McMahon, Bobby Sherman, Dick Van Patten, Tricia O’Neil, Cesar Romero, Dick Sargent, Bill Dana, Diana Muldaur, Noah Beery Jr., Troy Donahue, Vincent Price, James Sikking, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Edward Mulhare, Vera Miles, Victor Buono, Polly Bergen, Ken Berry, Norman Fell, Edward Albert, Kevin Tighe, Bibi Besch, Bob Crane, Juliet Mills, Gary Burghoff, Ronny Cox, and Walter Pidgeon.

(Important FYI: Here’s a quick word about the “real” Ellery Queen in the literary world. “Ellery Queen” is actually the pseudonym used by two cousins, Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee to write detective fiction. Some of the later Ellery Queen novels were ghost-written by Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Vance, and other prominent writers.

In their successful series of novels, Ellery Queen is not only the name of the author, but also the detective-hero of the stories. The writing team also wrote four novels under the name of Barnaby Ross about a Shakespearian actor/detective named Drury Lane. These novels were later reiussed under the Ellery Queen byline.

For a while in the 1930s “Ellery Queen” and “Barnaby Ross” staged a series of public debates in which one cousin impersonated Queen and the other impersonated Ross.

The early Queen novels encouraged the reader to attempt to solve the puzzle, with an explicit note in the text when the reader had all the necessary information.

There were many paperback novels written by “Ellery Queen” in the 1960s that did not feature the detective Ellery Queen. For instance, three novels featuring the governor’s “troubleshooter” Mike McCall – The Campus Murders (1969, written by Gil Brewer); The Black Hearts Murder (1970, written by Richard Deming); and The Blue Movie Murders (1972, written by Edward D. Hoch) — were published under the “Ellery Queen” byline. Jack Vance also wrote four of these book.) – E. Hornaday

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Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

Downton Abbey — a sprawling, lavish Edwardian mansion nestled in the Yorkshire landscape — needs an heir. Dame Maggy Smith stars as Violet, the stubborn Dowager Countess of Grantham matriarch of Downton. Hugh Bonneville stars as her son, the stoic, unflapple Lord Crawley. Elizabeth McGovern is his far-sighted American wife, Cora. From Academy Award-winner Julian Fellowes. This is the original un-edited UK version of the program.

An addictive blend of suds and social commentary, ITV’s Downton Abbey brings a microcosm of Edwardian society together under one roof. Lord Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and his family live a life of leisure, while a fleet of servants, including butler Carson (Jim Carter), attend to their every need, but two events conspire to shake things up: the sinking of the Titanic, which claims Crawley’s heirs, and the return of his valet, Bates (Brendan Coyle).

Since Crawley and Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) have three daughters, his distant solicitor cousin, Matthew (Dan Stevens), becomes heir to the estate. With that, the scheming begins, since Thomas the footman (Rob James-Collier) views Bates as an interloper and Crawley’s mother, Violet (Maggie Smith), feels the same way about Matthew’s mother, Isobel (Penelope Wilton).

In the tradition of the BBC’s Upstairs Downstairs and Robert Altman’s Gosford Park, for which writer-creator Julian Fellowes received an Academy Award, the royals, servants, and middle-class relations struggle to get along. Sniffs uptight maid Miss O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran), “Gentlemen don’t work,” but that doesn’t stop Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Edith Crawley (Laura Carmichael) from competing for Matthew’s affections. Though it takes awhile to warm up to the tightest-wound characters, most everyone reveals their more vulnerable side before the first season comes to an end, and a new small-screen classic is born.

The entire sprawling cast is quite wonderful, particularly Bonneville, Carter, and James-Collier, who provide a fascinating study in contrasts (the latter is downright dastardly). Unlike the version that aired on PBS’s Masterpiece Classic, this set offers seven parts rather than four. Extras include a featurette, in which cast and crew discuss the production, and an introduction to Hampshire’s Highclere Castle, which doubles for Downton Abbey. The first season was a phenomenon in the United Kingdom, and Fellowes has promised a second season set during World War I. –Kathleen C. Fennessy

Review

I found about this series after watching the final episode of Sherlock on PBS. I’m a huge fan of period dramas and after seeing the trailer for Downton Abbey, I knew I had to give it try.

Downton Abbey opens in 1912, following the sinking of the Titanic on which the heir of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham’s estate, dies. This leaves the family in a bit of a tizzy trying to figure out who would be next to inherit the estate since the Crawleys have three daughters who aren’t entitled to the entailment. Enter Matthew Crawley (the gorgeous Dan Stevens a.k.a “Edward Ferrars” from the 2008 Sense and Sensibility–whistle, whistle) as next in line and of course, not everyone is thrilled with the idea.

Meanwhile, we have the privledge of witnessing the bitter but incredibly fascinating sibling rivalry of the two eldest of the Earl’s daughters, Mary and Edith. Mary was engaged to the original heir of Downton Abbey but it was Edith who truly loved him. As if that wasn’t enough, the oldest, Mary, is seemingly the favorite of the girls’ mother who’s almost sole occupation is to marry her off (especially now that the entailment has gone to a “stranger” and her father will not fight it). Edith, on the other hand, is constantly overlooked and according to her mother, Cora, will more than likely be the one to take care of her and the Earl in their old age. The Earl’s youngest daughter, Sybil, however, is the personification of quiet strength. Super sweet but definitely not a push over, she is a firm advocate for Women’s Rights and doesn’t have any qualms about expressing her opinion, even if it means getting in trouble with her father.

Downstairs, we have the arrival of the mysterious Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle, Robert Timmens of Lark Rise to Candleford–whistle, whistle again!!) who develops feelings for head housemaid, Anna and vice versa but their station (and his secrets) make their romance a bit difficult. Put off by Bates’ arrival and the idea of the “lower station” of footman is the uber-villianous Thomas (I guarantee, you will hate this guy!). Aided by the equally nasty Miss O’Brien, they plot to get rid of Mr. Bates at almost all costs.

Of course, there are tons of subplots: Matthew’s determination not to be changed by the inhabitants of Downton, the butler’s “shameful” past, a maid’s dissatisfaction of working in service and hopes for better employment, secret (and some not so secret) crushes, and lots more.

Interspersed throughout the series are a number of memorable characters. Most notably, the fabulous Maggie Smith, who lends a lot of sass (and some hilarious one-liners) to this series as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham (the Earl’s mother). We also have Jim Carter (Captain Brown from Cranford) as Carson, the loyal butler of the Crawley family and Penelope Wilton (Mrs. Hamley from Wives and Daughters) as Isobel Crawley, the mother of new heir Matthew and recurring sparing partner of Violet.

This season of the series ends at the Crawleys’ garden party at which the Earl informs his guests that they are at war with Germany. Up to that point, a scandalous secret about Lady Mary is leaked that virtually ruins her reputation and she plots revenge on its revealer. A new “development” arises that may alter Matthew’s chances for gaining the Earl’s estate. Matthew, who himself finds a sparing partner in Mary, inevitably falls in love with her. She says that her feelings are mutual but he is unsure whether she wants him for himself or because of his prospect has heir to her father’s estate.

I found this to be a thoroughly entertaining series. Can’t wait for Season 2. – Danie, Amazon.Com Customer Review

Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

The highly anticipated complete series of one of the most acclaimed events in television history finally comes to DVD. This definitive Twin Peaks Gold Box Edition has been carefully supervised by David Lynch and will include for the first time ever on DVD the original and the European version of the pilot. This 10-disc groundbreaking series will feature all 30 newly re-mastered episodes, all-new 5.1 Surround Sound and is loaded with exclusive featurettes, new interviews, introductions and much much more! No DVD collection is complete without Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition.

Season 1
Twin Peaks devotees, who have kept the mystery alive on myriad Web sites, will jump at the chance to return to the spooky town that might just be the anti-Mayberry. Rarely syndicated, the Twin Peaks television series has lost none of its quirky and queasy power to get under your skin and haunt your dreams. So brew up a pot of some “damn fine coffee,” dig into some cherry pie, and lose yourself in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s murder mystery and soap opera, which unfolds, in one character’s words, “like a beautiful dream and terrible nightmare all at once.” Twin Peaks was a pop culture phenomenon for one season at least, until the increasingly bizarre twists and maddening teases so confounded audiences that they lost interest in just who killed Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). This series was a career peak for most of its eclectic ensemble cast, including Kyle MacLachlan as straight-arrow FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, Michael Ontkean as local Sheriff Harry S. Truman, Sherilyn Fenn as bad girl Audrey Horne, Peggy Lipton as waitress Norma Jennings, and Catherine Coulson as the Log Lady. Alumni enjoying current success include Lara Flynn Boyle (“The Practice”), as good girl Donna Hayward, and Miguel Ferrer (“Crossing Jordan”), hilarious as forensics expert Albert Rosenfield (who has absolutely no “social niceties”).–Donald Liebenson

Season 2
“Don’t search for all the answers at once,” says a giant appearing to FBI Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) in a vision. “A path is formed by laying one stone at a time.” In Twin Peaks, that’s easier said than done. Over the course of two seasons, that path went nowhere and everywhere. “Bureau guidelines, deductive technique, Tibetan method, and luck” don’t cut it here. It also takes a little magic, which is what makes David Lynch and Mark Frost’s bracingly original serial drama one of TV’s ultimate trips, and still the stuff that fever dreams are made of. With the DVD release of season 2, die-hard Peakers can rekindle their obsession with this macabre, maddening, sinister, and surreal series set in the rural Pacific Northwest community whose bucolic surroundings hide “things dark and heinous.” (If you’re new to Twin Peaks, best to get the lay of the land by watching the brilliant feature-length pilot and the instant-cult-classic first season, which capture Twin at its peak.) Three main mysteries drive season 2. First, there’s the still (!) unresolved murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Then, there’s the question of who shot Cooper in the season 1 cliffhanger. And finally, ultimately: What about Bob? With its dream logic, bizarre behavior, and nightmare imagery, much of what transpires goes right by you. Some subplots (Sherilyn Fenn’s sexpot Audrey held captive at the bordello, One-Eyed Jacks) are easier to latch on to than others (amnesiac Nadine believes she’s an 18-year-old high schooler) And, yes, that’s a pre-X-Files David Duchovny as Dennis/Denice, a transsexual DEA agent.

In Twin Peaks‘ second season, the truth is out there, but we are entering A Few Good Men territory. When Laura’s killer is at last revealed in episode 16, no doubt many will not be able to handle the truth. The teases, red herrings, and out-and-out gonzo looniness will try the patience of viewers with a more conventional bent. But, as Cooper observes at one point, “All in all, [it's] a very interesting experience,” with enough doppelgangers, allusions, pop-culture references, and in-jokes to keep bloggers buzzing. If, for example, you get any pleasure from recognizing Hank Worden, who played Mose in The Searchers, as “the world’s most decrepit room service waiter,” then Twin Peaks may just make you feel right at home. –Donald Liebenson

On the DVDs
Twin Peaks lived in its own bizarre, dark, amazing, fantasy world, fresh from the mind of creator David Lynch. The extra features on this Gold Box edition (which includes both seasons and the long-awaited pilot) intend to draw you into the milieu surrounding the world of the story, and offer you a glimpse into the gestation and making of the show, while gently poking fun at itself. To quote Lynch at the beginning of A Slice of David Lynch, “This is the strangest damn thing.” He’s referring to the act of sitting on a set in Los Angeles, drinking coffee and eating cherry pie with cast members Madchen Amick, Kyle MacLachlan, and personal assistant John Wentworth years after the show ended. But he may as well have also been referring to the show itself, and to the enormous popular phenomenon it accidentally became. As can be inferred from the title, A Slice of Lynch is a glimpse inside the creative mind of Lynch through his interactions with his old stars and assistant, and watching this, you can’t help but understand that Lynch operates on a different plain from normal humanity, and his artistic process, while often befuddling, yields incredibly original results to a degree that almost boggles the mind; happy accidents seem to stem from almost every artistic decision he makes. The strength of this feature is that it makes it clear that the world of Twin Peaks really existed, it just happened to live in the minds of David Lynch and co-writer Mark Frost. Twin Peaks Festival is almost an afterthought, it doesn’t fit with the rest of the features in depth or insight, but curious fans will get a kick out of seeing what happens when the most rabid, hardcore Twin Peaks gather in the Northwest–on the sights of many of the show’s scenes–for a fan festival that beats the heck out of any Star Trek convention. Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks offers a meaty, four-part look into how the show came about, the filming of both seasons, and the creation of the music by composer Angelo Badalamenti and singer Julee Cruise. Black Lodge Archive features six different items ranging from the “Falling” music video to bumpers and galleries that don’t do much to offer insight into the show, but they offer an unexpected, added bonus: watching Agent Cooper hawk Georgia Coffee in ads that aired only in Japan. They are quite possibly more hilarious and bizarre than anything in the show itself. The features do a great job of reminding an old audience, and explaining to a new one, why the show had such a devoted following. To quote one actress from the show: “It was unique, it came at a time when television was boring… there was nothing else like it on television.” –Daniel Vancini

Relive the magic! This newly restored, 2-disc anniversary edition of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth contains an all-new commentary and bonus features that are guaranteed to captivate as never before. David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly invite you into a magical universe where nothing is what it seems! Babysitting infant stepbrother Toby on a weekend night isn’t young Sarah’s (Connelly) idea of fun. Frustrated by his crying, she secretly imagines the Goblins from her favorite book, Labyrinth, carrying Toby away. When her fantasy comes true, a distraught Sarah must enter a maze of illusion to bring Toby back from a kingdom inhabited by mystical creatures and governed by the wicked Goblin King (Bowie).

Editorial Review

Sarah (a teenage Jennifer Connelly) rehearses the role of a fairy-tale queen, performing for her stuffed animals. She is about to discover that the time has come to leave her childhood behind. In real life she has to baby-sit her brother and contend with parents who don’t understand her at all. Her petulance leads her to call the goblins to take the baby away, but when they actually do, she realizes her responsibility to rescue him. Sarah negotiates the Labyrinth to reach the City of the Goblins and the castle of their king. The king is the only other human in the film and is played by a glam-rocking David Bowie, who performs five of his songs. The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Jim Henson’s imaginative masterpieces. Henson gives credit to children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings. The castle of the king is a living M.C. Escher set that adults will enjoy. The film combines the highest standards of art, costume, and set decoration. Like executive producer George Lucas’s other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up. –Lloyd Chesley

Review

In the early 80′s Jim Henson created one of the most ambitious fantasy films ever: The Dark Crystal. It was a movie that had a completely realized world with its own creatures and flora… and it was performed entirely by puppets. Not the Muppet kind that Henson is famous for, mind you. These were serious creations that involved serious innovations in animatronics. While many loved the movie and it was critically acclaimed many others didn’t “get it”. There was no human interaction in the movie whatsoever and that put off people. Also the movie was serious with none of that Muppet mayhem Henson fans are so used to. That put off a few more people.

The next evolutionary step in Jim’s grand scheme of fantasy puppetry was Labyrinth, and they filled in the gaps that The Dark Crystal left for those who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) “get” the concept of a fully realized fantasy setting that is outside of our own. How does he do it? Let me tell you…

Step One – Human actors. Labyrinth included the young, yet already talented Jennifer Connelly as their heroine and well-established musician and actor David Bowie as her nemesis. Now you get the fun of a complete puppet world while at the same time you have human characters that interact in that same environment. Thus giving the viewer a better connection to the puppet characters.

Step Two – Better puppets. The Dark Crystal is a masterpiece in of itself, however the technology used to animate the puppets was in its infancy and if you had to be picky about it you can pick away at the limitations of the puppets in that movie. With Labyrinth you get updated technology, which gives you puppets who can show emotions better. Case in point is the goblin Hoggle, who is the starring puppet. So much attention to detail went into his facial expressions that you can actually see the fear, disgust, anger, and joy in his eyes. Add to that other puppetry innovations and you have a world of cool puppets.

Step Three – Keep it fun. The Dark Crystal was a grandiose and serious film that included some funny moments now and then. Labyrinth is the opposite. Is a fun film where the characters meet up with unexpected and often times crazy situations. Makes this fantasy adventure feel more comical in the same way it would reading a fun bedtime story.

Step Four – Keep the original concept. Jim Henson did The Dark Crystal with the thought that he wanted to create a whole different world inhabited by beings and creatures portrayed entirely by puppets. Labyrinth is essentially the same thing, but done in a different way. Walking through the movie’s namesake (the maze that leads to the goblin city) is definitely like being in another world that’s both fascinating and fun. Much of what you see is visually impressive and essentially relish in the fact your eyes can play tricks on you. Brian Froud is again signed on as the conceptual designer and his work shines just as well in this iteration as it did with Dark Crystal.

Labyrinth also has the destinction of having songs specially written for the movie by David Bowie. Keep in mind this movie was in the 80′s so what you get is 80′s Bowie, and there are a couple scenes that flow more like music videos (or musical numbers) than standard scenes.

You might get the impression I am dogging on Dark Crystal in order to lift up Labyrinth. Can’t be farther from the truth. However I do know the differences between the two films and how the other was made in response to the first. Labyrinth is the folk tale while Dark Crystal is the fantasy book. I believe both are fantastic movies.

The original DVD for Labyrinth was a good compilation right from the start, and is superceded only now with the Anniversary Edition. Here’s what you get:

Documentary Making of the Labyrinth – Has interviews with actors, puppet performers and production staff including Jim Henson, Brian Henson, David Bowie (who gives us some insight on his character) and Jennifer Connelly as well as lots of details on design and production of the movie. This documentary is a gem for those of you want solid behind-the-scenes details and was in the original DVD and is included on the Anniversary edition.

Journey Through the Labyrinth: Kingdom of Characters and The Quest for Golden City – These two all new featurettes include updated interviews with the cast and crew and never before seen footage from the Jim Henson archives. Kingdom of Characters focuses on… you guessed it… the main characters in the movie including conceptual design for the puppets (although Hoggle seems to be mostly left out, likely because there is so much of him in the original documentary) and background info on the actors. The Quest for the Golden City is mostly design details on the labyrinth, Goblin City and castle itself. These featurettes do well to fill in the gaps left by the original documentary. The extra footage is test footage of the puppets and such, with some production footage as well. I noticed some of the production footage was a rehash of what’s on Making of the Labyrinth, but the crosstalk is few and far between.

Commentary by Brian Froud

You also get DDS 5.1 Surround in English and Japanese along with a Portugese stereo track (how many movies have a Japanese and Portugese dub?), Subtitles (in English, Japanese, Portugese and French), remastered visuals from high definition masters, and it’s presented in anomorphic 2.35.1 widescreen. Believe me, the diffence in video quality between this and all of the previous DVD releases is significant. For no other reason this alone is worth getting.

This is what you would call the definitive edition to date, although that’s about to change. Labyrinth is slated for release on high definition Blu-Ray in late September! It will have all the same features as this edition and will also include an exclusive picture in picture extra titled The Storytellers. Which one do you get? Well until I hear more about the high definition transfer I won’t say for sure, but so far the track record on Blu-Ray editions has been good. My only concern is if the clean up for Blu-Ray took out too much of the original grain from the camera. Will update when I learn more.

Labyrinth is a wonderful movie for all ages. The visuals will impress and the hijinks will entertain. If you are a Muppet fan this movie will be much more accessable than the Dark Crystal, and if you like The Storyteller then you have abolustely no choice but to get this (it’s like a full length Storyteller movie sans John Hurt).

Get ready for a full dose of medical mysteries with 21 episodes of the riveting drama series, House. Hugh Laurie is joined by James Earl Jones (Star Wars), Laura Prepon (That ’70s Show) and David Strathairn (The Bourne Ultimatum) in guest appearances as he returns to his Golden Globe® winning and Primetime Emmy® Award-nominated role as Dr. Gregory House. In this brilliant sixth season, House finds himself in an uncomfortable position— away from the examination room. As he works to regain his license and his life, his coworkers deal with the staff shakeups, moral dilemmas, and their own tricky relationships with House. And when House returns more obstinate than ever, Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital will never be the same again.

Editorial Review

The sixth season of House, M.D. starts off with a phenomenal two-part episode that sets the tone for the rest of the year. After years of abusing prescription drugs (and colleagues), Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) finds himself in a psychiatric ward as a patient who is not so patient with his own doctor. Smart and manipulative, House tries to finagle his way out of the hospital. But his selfish actions set off a chain reaction of events that manage to shake even his own confidence–temporarily, at least. This season spends a lot of time delving into House’s psyche and the writers do a wonderful job depicting a brilliant, sad, and flawed man who knows more than most, but not enough to save every patient who comes to see him. That glimpse allows viewers to sympathize with his addictions but leaves them guessing as to whether the good doctor will be able to shake his dependency on drugs for good. However, viewers are never actually convinced when House quits his job. In many ways, he is his job.

House has always tackled fascinating cases and that continues this season, though the symptoms aren’t overly dramatic by House standards. The team tries to save a man whose family history indicates that he will die of a heart attack before he turns 40. They try to help a brilliant scientist whose depression and addictions make him feel he’s better suited for a simpler life as a courier. And Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) may once again be grappling with cancer. It’s a credit to this show that while it features such a strong lead character, the costars don’t get shafted in the process. Wilson is one of the show’s most charming characters and, by default, has become House’s best friend. The two of them share a home and bicker like an old married couple. When a woman they both are attracted to mistakenly assumes that they’re a complicated gay couple, we can’t help but laugh. But Wilson’s love life is made difficult by the return of his ex-wife and House doesn’t want to see his friend hurt again. He can abuse Wilson, but he doesn’t want her to do the same.

House’s boss Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) has her own issues, juggling a harried personal life and the complications that come with trying to keep House in line. Chase (Jesse Spencer) falls under scrutiny this season after treating a controversial politician who he fears will murder innocent civilians. He finds himself struggling with the Hippocratic oath to treat all patients–even the ones he finds distasteful–to the best of his ability. And of the main characters on the show, one will be fired, another will profess their love for a colleague, and three of them will look for love via a speed-dating service. Yes, the story lines are all over the place, but then again, so is House. –Jae-Ha Kim

Review

Season 5 of the series House ended memorably with a well-edited contrast: family and friends at warm wedding vs. Wilson watching the broken doctor as he checked himself into a hospital on a cold and gray day. Season 6 starts off with House (Hugh Laurie) in treatment for his vicodin addiction, an addiction which had fueled a series of devastating (yet revealing) hallucinations. Viewers know how House treats “normal” people (that is to say, not with warm and fuzzy feelings) and in the beginning of Season 6 they are treated to House interacting with “abnormal” people. House, ever the equal opportunity offender, does not seem too changed by his stint in Mayfield hospital. Andre Braugher (of “Homicide”) was well cast as House’s experienced, nothing-shocks-him therapist, able to go head-to-head with House, and there is a guest role by Franka Potente (“Run Lola Run”) as a beautiful visitor to the hospital with whom House has a brief relationship.

The writers are able to take House out of his comfort zone, surround him with multi-dimensional characters, and still have House stand out. Don’t expect any blatant epiphanies in therapy for House about why he is the way he is. Is it the pain, is it the drugs, his relationship with is father, is it the curse of being a genius? There are no resolutions to go back into the “real world,” settle down and live happily ever after. Thank goodness!

The epiphanies are of course saved for the hospital, when House returns to work. He gradually becomes more confident in his ability to solve cases. Even after five previous seasons, the writers are able to come up with all new cases and all new characters for House to read right through.

That being said, Season 6 delves more of the personal lives of the characters than prior seasons: Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) as she balances being a mom, with a love life, and with the demands of her job; Cuddy and House; Taub (Peter Jacobson) and his wife, Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and Foreman (Omar Epps), Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and House (some of the best dialogue from the show still occurs between those two), Wilson and his ex-wife. Of particular note, Dr. Chase (played by Jesse Spencer) finally gets some great story lines dealing with secrets, morality and ethics (which the show has always been great at raising discussions about). By Season 6, Robert Chase is no longer the doctor who always tries to stay on House’s good side, or agree with House, or play it safe. In past seasons, it was Foreman who had to gain independence from House. In Season 6, Cuddy struggles with it, Taub struggles with it, Wilson starts to and Dr. Chase definitely does, but with severe professional and personal consequences. Of course, there was also the strawberry body butter incident(season 5). Gotta love the variety in the show!

In past seasons, there has been at least one reference (that I can recall) to a patient who died while under House’s care. In Season 6, viewers witness other patients not making it. When it happens to House or his team, there will be and were huge ramifications.

Overall, another great season for House. Even after five seasons, Hugh Laurie is able to make House a multi-dimensional character, capable of stinging one-liners but also of conveying internal trauma. How he could not have won every Emmy and golden globe since House was on the air is beyond me. Don’t award committees love drug addicts, people pulling off accents, and people in mental institutions? It’s the trifecta!

Regarding the famed House/Cuddy relationship, I was probably in the minority by not being too keen on the idea, I thought it might get too “Grey’s Anatomy” if you’ll pardon the other medical show reference. However, the writers managed (who knows how) to put an original spin on their relationship, it is certainly kept far from the soap opera-ish realm of workplace romances, probably because the characters involved both have complex motivations. It will be interesting to see if House and Cuddy can make it, and in any case, it at least won’t be a television cliché.

House fans have come to expect changes in House’s team each season finale and true to form, Season 6 does not deviate as one cast member seems to be departing.

Bravo once again! Bravo! – TessClare, Amazon Review

Experience the ultimate way to enjoy “…TV’s best comedy” (Alex Pappademas, GQ), The Office, with this must-own five-disc set that includes every Season Six episode, plus an uncensored original digital short, hours of deleted scenes and much more! Follow Michael (Steve Carell), Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Jim (John Krasinski), Pam (Jenna Fischer), Ryan (B.J. Novak), Andy (Ed Helms) and the rest of the Scranton crew as they pursue new heights of inappropriateness while facing everything from new romances, marriage and parenthood to new ownership, Darryl’s (Craig Robinson) rise to middle management and a ball-busting new boss! Developed for American television by Primetime Emmy® Award winner Greg Daniels, “The Office is so funny it hurts” (Joanna Weiss, The Boston Globe)!

Editorial Review

Happily, The Office had a much more productive year than Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who laments to his new boss in the season finale that he has been going through a “rough patch.” Reviewing his home movies, he says, “There were only 12 minutes that I felt were worth taping.” Season 6 provides ample footage that Officers will want to keep on file. Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) at last get married in the season benchmark, “Niagara,” an Emmy-nominated episode (director Paul Feig was robbed!) brimming with hilarious and richly satisfying mental camera “click” moments to treasure.

Kathy Bates and Zach Woods are welcome additions to the company as, respectively, Joanna Bennett, the formidable and no-nonsense CEO of Sabre, which purchases the struggling Dunder Mifflin, and Gabe, her intimidated right-hand man. Darryl (Craig Robinson) gets a well-deserved promotion upstairs, Andy (an Emmy-worthy Ed Helms) and Erin (the charming Ellie Kemper) fill the will-they-or-won’t-they void left by Jim and Pam with their sweet and awkward courtship that is rife with drama, and Michael is oddly pleased to learn that (spoiler alert) his new girlfriend is married. Not everything works this season. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) hatches a diabolical plan to sabotage the newly promoted Jim, but it goes nowhere, as do his nonsensical negotiations with Angela (Angela Kinsey) to conceive a child.

And a clip episode (“The Banker”) seems like slacking off. But there is no reprimanding the ensemble for its total investment in their characters, whom Joanna rightly calls “some of the loveliest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.” Each episode has giddy grace notes (the camera catches Creed moved to tears by an opera aria in “The Lover”) and priceless bits of comic business (Pam turns Borsht Belt comedian in “Body Language,” Joanna gives budding author Toby unsolicited advice on his novel in progress in “Whistleblower”).

And for the first time, the season-ending cliffhanger does not involve Jim and Pam, but the series’ second most beloved couple. There are two disappointing omissions from this five-disc set. The Halloween-themed cold open has been excised from the episode “Koi Pond,” and the viral sensation Subtle Sexuality webisodes, including the “Male Prima Donna” music video, are not included among the bonus features. –Donald Liebenson

Review

For several years, The Office was easily the funniest and best written comedy on television. Its hard to pinpoint which season is the pinnacle of the series, it may be a tie between seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5. Every one of them is tremendous. Considering season one was barely half of a season, The Office was still fairly young heading into its 6th year, so it was reasonable for fans to expect the same level of high quality comedy we’d been enjoying since the show’s inception. Tragically this isn’t exactly the case with #6. The season begins with a very promising start that maintains both the energy and the quality of the previous seasons. In fact the entire first half of the season is, for the most part, very well done… but eventually season six dissolves into a mix of mediocre and sometimes, painfully bad episodes (the finale being one of the worst eps in series history).

The biggest problem of season 6 is the massive story arcs. Now, multiple episode storylines have always been a strong point for this series; whether it was the Dwight and Angela affair in seasons 2-5 or the Michael Scott Paper Company in season 5, reccuring plots on The Office were always successful. This is also mostly the case in season 6; the problem is that the show ultimately becomes so reliant on large story arcs that they eventually lose sight of what the foundation of The Office’s success had always been: great characters and great comedy. There is a glaringly obvious shortage of stand alone episodes. No matter how many reccuring storylines there were in previous years there was always a large number of classic stand alone episodes (naturally revolving around the hysterical antics of Michael Scott). As I’ve said, there is nothing wrong with extended story arcs but when every single episode relies on them it is inevitable that the humor and the character development will suffer. As is the case here.

Most of 6′s storylines are engaging and well written. The financial trouble of Dunder Mifflin is topical and provides several great episodes (Michael making empty promises to a room of angry Dunder Mifflin investors is classic) but ultimately the writers paint themselves into a corner and make drastic, unnecessary (I cannot stress the word unnecessary enough!) changes to the series. The introduction of Sabre turns a very good season into a shockingly mediocre one. The changes to the cast are awful. We lose the subtlely hillarious David Wallace and are force fed two bland and awkward replacements: Gabe Lewis and Jo Bennett. The presence of Kathy Bates is especially intrusive. Not that she’s a bad actor, but her character is just so out of place that she literally sucks the comedy out of every episode she’s in.

Its also terribly obvious at times that the writers are either not working together or are on seperate pages. Some of the ongoing subplots are incredibly inconsistant; many are forgotten about for episodes at a time, never resolved or never even lifted off of the ground. At the end of a mid-season episode, an alliance is formed between Dwight and Ryan the Temp; the goal: to bring down their mutual nemesis, Jim Halpert. This promising subplot is then instantly forgotten about until a much later episode, when it is put to a sudden, dissapointing end. There is also a mid-season resurfacing of the Dwight/Angela saga, which again, is consistantly ignored, conveniently brought back every two-three episodes or so before another quick ending. The only story that gets constant attention is the awkward relationship between Andy and Erin, which has its moments but is also often filler material. Andy is a great character but Erin comes on way too strong when heavily featured.

Fortunately though, season six actually starts out fairly strong with a string of very memorable episodes, and even throughout the rough stretches there are still a handful of good eps. One of the major story points that drives much of the early season is the promotion of Jim to the “co-manager” position. This one works very well (while it lasts) as it advances the progession of the character from goof-off to responsible future parent and it provides the basis for some great early episodes that play off of the rivalry/friendship of Michael and Jim, as well as the rivalry/rivalry between Jim and Dwight. Though, at the same time, putting Jim in a position of responsibility undermines the foundation of his character and all later attempts to regress him back to what he used to be come up short.

Basically, The Office simply runs out of steam halfway through its sixth year. The scripts begin to allow very little room for Steve Carell to shine. Creed no longer gets his usual one liners. Character development comes to a near halt. There are no more stories about Pam as a salesman. Ryan is pushed to the distant background. Dwight doesn’t get nearly enough screentime, and even more disturbing: he gets almost no screentime with Michael, depriving us fans of the show’s best comedy duo…

When it comes down to it, #6 is still a good season, especially when you look at the first twelve or so episodes. The top highlights are…

The Promotion- New co-manager Jim has trouble handling the job while Michael has trouble with Jim’s style of managment. Meanwhile, Dwight tries to spark rebellion.

Niagra- Jim and Pam’s wedding. Very well written episode. A series classic. Aside from the less than creative inclusion of a cheesy you tube video and the disturbing fact that Creed has no dialogue this episode is near flawless.

Secret Santa- When both Michael and Phyllis dress up as Santa, Michael gets jealous, turns his suit inside-out and becomes a bitter, sarcastic Jesus. Obviously a hillarious episode.

The Delivery- Another classic episode that revolves around the birth of Jim and Pam’s baby… and Dwight’s demolition of the Halpert kitchen. Probably the best season 6 has to offer.

Happy Hour- Michael becomes ‘Date Mike’ in one of the few strong episodes of the season’s second half.

With #7 set to be Steve Carrell’s last, I sincerely hope this series can get back on track. My message to the writers is this: Pull yourself together and get back on top! That’s what she said. - 007, Amazon Customer Review

No show captured the eccentricities of New York like the Larry David-created sitcom Seinfeld. Helping to define America’s view of New Yorkers, the series gained endless fans over its nine season run. Though it wasn’t the first show to assert the rudeness of Gotham’s citizens, its characters are selfish to a fault–not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Self-obsessed comedian Jerry Seinfeld is joined in the cast by his neurotic ex-girlfriend, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus); his chronically lazy pal, George (Jason Alexander); and Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards), who takes the sitcom cliche of the weird neighbor to impressive new heights. Despite their faults (or perhaps because of them), they’re some of the most hilariously watchable characters in television history. The entire series is presented here.

Review

This box set (and by the way the TV show behind it) deserves every star it can possibly get. Offering us the long view on “Seinfeld,” from day one to day last, it allows us to see the scope of this greatest of all television shows, transmogrifying itself from Jerry-In-Red-Sweatpants at the beginning to Jerry-In-Lear-Jet at the end, like the old drawing of Darwin’s “ape-caveman-upright man” progression.

And we see that the ape era wasn’t so bad, after all; in fact, looked at as part of the show’s evolution, the first two seasons, while the writers and actors were finding their voices, were the truest period of all for the show. Scrambling (sometimes raging) to find something, ANYthing to make a show about, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld plumbed the best of their depths, offering a crash course in late-20th century survival of the un-fittest. Even at its 4th-season artistic zenith, the show would never be this real.

With the whole thing here in one place, we can even see that there are periods to this show as with any longterm work. The first period (Seasons 1-2) is the most grounded in reality; the second period (Seasons 3-5) is the most artistically rich, where the show has truly found its niche and explores it like a kid in a Toys R Us with an unlimited charge account; the third period (Seasons 6-7) is the wheels-are-off-the-wagon period, where anything goes as long as it’s funny, no idea is too insane; the fourth and final period (Seasons 8-9) is just as anything-goes but it gets just a bit too manic at times, and you occasionally lose the suspension of disbelief you need to enjoy any work of fiction. Still, there is no “bad” season of this show, and no single episode is completely devoid of that brilliant “Seinfeld” wit that made this one of the most popular television shows of all time.

But scope is not all this set offers. It offers, simply, EVERYTHING. Confident that you have every episode at your fingertips, you can flip through the set for a show like you’d flip through the Bible for a quote (that’s not going too far, is it?). Pick “The Red Dot,” then pick “The Limo,” then pick “The Puffy Shirt,” then pick “The Finale.” On and on it goes, until you’ve seen so many you forget which ones you’ve seen and you start again. It’s all there. And all the extras from all the box sets, from the feature-length documentary on the creation of the show to the great “Inside Looks” and the (frankly kind of useless) commentaries.

New for this box set is a Seinfeld Coffee Table Book, which is kind of the trivia-rich “Notes About Nothing” segments rolled into a single volume. Also included is an hour-long special recorded in 2007 featuring the original four cast members and Larry David watching and commenting on various clips from the show’s nine-year run. It’s fun and interesting, but it probably won’t be watched more than once or twice. The “Inside Looks” are better for tidbits and insight into the show’s workings. Finally, the packaging simply couldn’t be better: tight, durable, compact. As always, they’ve cared enough to think of everything.

I love this show, I can watch it again and again, and it bugs me every time I hear people (even Seinfeld and co. themselves) talking about the characters as unredeemable or even vaguely sociopathic. The characters in “Seinfeld” are not anything like that. I think this misinterpretation, which is widespread even among the show’s fans, is the fault of the actors and producers themselves, who have famously said that “Seinfeld” is a “no-learning, no-hugging” show. They themselves sold the characters as unredeemable; but the fact is that the 4-way friendship portrayed in this show is the strongest friendship ever portrayed on television. To me, that’s what makes “Seinfeld” so great. What that show is REALLY about is people living in a massive, overwhelming urban environment (which, in our society of computers and malls and digital cable is everyone, even those living in small towns) who create and maintain a small outpost of human closeness, of love, in the face of that industrial anonymity we all feel closing in every day. That’s certainly why I react to it, and why I’ve watched it so often. Not just the dialogue and the unorthodox structure of the show, which is brilliant, and not just the dead-on satire of modern American culture, but the relationships. “Seinfeld” is deeper than it ever sold itself.

All in all the complete box set is everything you could ask for, assuming you already like “Seinfeld.” If you don’t, come on, you’re not plunking down two hundred bucks for this thing anyway. – Bruce Hutton, Amazon Review

A dramatic account of the politics and personalities behind NBC’s calamitous attempt to reinvent late-night television.

When NBC decided to move Jay Leno into prime time to make room for Conan O’Brien to host the Tonight show-a job he had been promised five years earlier-skeptics anticipated a train wreck for the ages. It took, in fact, only a few months for the dire predictions to come true. Leno’s show, panned by critics, dragged down the ratings-and the profits-of NBC’s affiliates, while ratings for Conan’s new Tonight show plummeted to the lowest levels in history. Conan’s collapse, meanwhile, opened an unexpected door of opportunity for rival David Letterman. What followed was a boisterous, angry, frequently hilarious public battle that had millions of astonished viewers glued to their sets. In The War for Late Night, New York Times reporter Bill Carter offers a detailed behind-the-scenes account of the events of the unforgettable 2009/2010 late-night season as all of its players- performers, producers, agents, and network executives-maneuvered to find footing amid the shifting tectonic plates of television culture.

About the Author

Bill Carter joined The New York Times as a national media reporter in 1989. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Late Shift, two other books on the television industry, Monday Night Mayhem and Desperate Networks, and has written numerous articles for The New York Times Magazine and other publications. He has been a guest on Nightline, Today, CNN, Charlie Rose, The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, and many other shows.

Review

When the Lay Leno/Conan O’Brian “Tonight Show” debacle began, everyone knew there was only one person who could tell the true story: Bill Carter. 15 years after his excellent “The Late Shift,” Carter finally gives us the follow-up and it’s just as wonderfully detailed and excellent as the first book was.

Carter’s writing is amazing as he makes you feel like a fly on the wall for the various meetings. He doesn’t make judgements but gives us a balanced tale of the various players with full bios on Conan, Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson and more. This allows you to get behind the people who are fleshed out wonderfully.

With Conan, Carter shows that his big problem was being too nice a guy and niave to the network politics. It’s astonishing to discover that his people never secured a deal to make sure “The Tonight Show” always followed the evening news, which gave NBC some ammuntion. Another telling remark is on how Conan didn’t do as much audience interaction as Leno or Letterman and considered himself a writer, not a performer, which cost him down the line. While Conan is shown as a sympathetic figure, he’s not given a free ride by the author.

Leno, meanwhile, doesn’t come off as some evil schemer but a nice guy in a hard situation. Carter paints the picture that Leno’s decisions are due to his thinking in a time warp, still under the impression that “Tonight Show” is the only late night program people care about. As far as Jay’s concerned, HE was the one who had “The Tonight Show” taken from him and he sees nothing wrong with taking it back.

While the focus is on those two, David Letterman gets a lot of attention as well. As in “The Late Shift,” Carter illustrates that Letterman was always his own worst critic, taking so much blame on himself despite the wide respect people had for him (such as his post-9/11 speech). That attitude helped him remain popular in the wake of the intern scandal and gave him new fire when he took on Leno. As Carter points out, Letterman was the true heir to the Carson legacy, something NBC always ignored.

The other late night players are focused on (Although Carter does give short shrift to Craig Kilborn, dismissing his five-year run in a page) with how Colbert and Stewart robbed Conan of some of his buzz with younger viewers and their political influence as well as how Kimmel and Ferguson rose well. Jeff Zucker is also given huge attention as a man who can’t seem to understand how bad NBC is in the ratings and putting way too much faith in Leno and other quick fixes that don’t pan out.

The book comes alive when Leno’s prime-time show crashes and burns and the fight for “Tonight Show” ignites. The meetings are wild and dramatic with Conan at one point exploding at NBC execs “what does Jay have on you?” The epilouge notes the shift in power with Jerry Seinfeld making the nice observation that people don’t think about “Tonight Show” or “Late Show” but Jay/David/Conan.

While much of it may sound familiar (“the Late Shift” was powerful because there was no Internet back then so much of it came as a surprise) the book is great in its details and that it doesn’t take sides helps you connect better. Thankfully, Carter avoids traps such as speculating how Johnny Carson would feel over all this and for anyone who wants the full story of how such a ridiculous situation took place, this is the best source you can possibly read and a great character piece to boot. – Michael A. Weyer, Amazon Review

Funny Guys, Serious Business

The New York Times Book Review – December 16, 2010 (Excerpt)

“Let’s just hope it gets ugly, and then we’ll all have fun,” Conan O’Brien privately joked about his future at “The Tonight Show” back in 2004, never imagining just how ugly — and how far from amusing — his clash with Jay Leno would become. But who could have predicted that, instead of passing him the baton, Mr. Leno would beat him about the face and neck with it? Or at least that was the reigning narrative as this strange battle unfolded in January 2010.

But in his new book, “The War for Late Night,” Bill Carter, a television reporter for The New York Times, demonstrates that the flanking maneuvers made by crucial warriors on the late-night battlefield were far more complicated and far less malevolent than onlookers assumed. Through exhaustive research and interviews with the major players in this battle Mr. Carter demonstrates that, while the usual oversize Hollywood egos were forming secret alliances and stockpiling armaments, it was NBC that fired the shots that sank the Lusitania. [Read the full article...]

Come join the family for the hilarious and critically acclaimed breakout hit of the year! Featuring an all-star cast led by Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vargara, Julie Bowen, and Ty Burrell, Modern Family takes a refreshing and funny view of what it means to raise a family in this hectic day and age.  Multi-cultural relationships, adoption, and same-sex marriage are just a few of the timely issues faced by the show’s three wildly-diverse broods.  No matter the size or shape, family always comes first in this hilariously “modern” look at life, love, and laughter.

Special Features

Disc 1:
Deleted, extended and alternate scenes
Deleted family interviews

Disc 2:
Deleted, extended and alternate scenes
Deleted family interviews

Disc 3:
Deleted, extended and alternate scenes
Deleted family interviews

Disc 4:
Deleted, extended and alternate scenes
Gag reel
Real Modern Family moments
Before Modern Family
Fizbo the Clown
The Making of Modern Family: ‘Family Portrait’
Modern Family ‘Hawaii’

Review

This is the very best comedy on TV at this point in time…PERIOD. The cast is absolutely top shelf. Also, it is extremely rare find such outstanding chemistry between the artists.

The younger cast members deserve particular recognition here. Let’s start with Sarah Hyland (Haley), outstanding acting talent. Has anybody noticed when she smiles she is exactly like a young Natalie Wood? Ariel Winter (Alex) she brilliantly embodies the awkwark and frustrated middle sibbling. Nolan Gould (Luke) does a terrific job as the youngest child in the zoo.

My best review is reserved for Rico Rodriguez (Manny). He is outstanding. In fact, I would say award worthy. This kid has the acting talent and professional bearing to bring a multi fasceted and complex child to life. “Manny” is caught in the middle between dads and cultures. He manages to bring the humorous side of his life situation through at just the right moments. Very genuine. Congradulations Rico, you have earned praise for your work.

The rest of the cast is just as good. I just wanted to take the time and recognize the work of these fine actors.

Finally, none of the reviews on this page would be singing the praises of this television series if it were not for the outstanding work of it’s writers. I beg, I entreat you, to please keep this group together as they clearly have developed continuity and depth with their characters. The ability to do this and seemlessly integrate them into a storyline is very rare indeed. Hopefully it is the precurser for many deserved awards to come.

Directors, please receive my compliments for successfully bringing it all together.

The moment the DVD comes out, it’s mine. Congradulations guys for producing such a great, funny, entertaining and relevant show that has all of us awaiting the next installment. – Marcos M. Sendon, Amazon Review

In WISHFUL DRINKING, Fisher details her complicated yet eclectic extended family tree in Hollywood Inbreeding 101, employing a blackboard and wooden pointer.  Her father Eddie Fisher’s very public affair with Elizabeth Taylor ended what had been perceived and celebrated as a “storybook marriage,” and she and her brother Todd later watched both her mother’s and father’s “once white-hot bright star of celebrity slowly dim, cool and fade.”  In 1973, at her mother’s urging, the 17-year-old Fisher enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London; two years later, her life changed forever when she donned a white dress as Princess Leia in George Lucas’ “Star Wars.”

Resurrection. After enduring unspeakable torture, Dean escapes from Hell, rescued by an all-powerful creature he’s never seen before – an Angel – a warrior of God who recruits Sam and Dean into Heaven’s battle against Hell. And there are whispers that a certain fallen angel will soon be freed from his prison deep in Hell: Lucifer. If Sam and Dean can’t stop it – if Lucifer walks free – he’ll bring on the Apocalypse. Meanwhile, the Winchester Brothers reunite and hit the road, battling the supernatural wherever they go. They encounter demons, spirits, Dracula himself and even a drunk, heavily armed 7-foot-tall teddy bear. All the while, the ultimate war draws them into its horror throughout this enthralling 6-Disc, 22-Episode Season Four. Caught between Heaven and Hell, between God and the Devil, the Winchester brothers must battle for the future of humankind.

Editorial Review

When a television series opens its new season with a lead character crawling out of his grave after escaping Hell itself, one cannot help but wonder: how will the rest of the episodes ever follow that? In the case of Supernatural‘s fourth season, the answer comes from above with the introduction of Misha Collins’s Castiel, an angel dispatched to rescue Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) from infernal torment and reunite him with brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) for a very special mission. That quest–to stop the demonic Lilith from opening the 66 seals required to bring Lucifer to Earth and launch the Apocalypse–forms the backbone of the 22 episodes, which takes some fairly adventurous risks with the core of the show. Chief among these is the rift that deepens between Dean and Sam as they attempt to work together, despite their divergent destinies; also agreeable is the season’s tonal shift away from its previous Monster of the Week format (though that’s still intact for many episodes) and toward a single, more ambitious story and thematic arc. The sea change deepens the show’s drama, intensifies the level of suspense and stakes in each episode, and pushes it several big steps away from its teen-friendly origins. Of course, there’s still plenty of the show’s trademark irreverence and humor to be found, especially in the clever “Monster Movie,” which pits the brothers against a Shapeshifter that takes the form of classic movie fiends, and “The Monster at the End of This Book,” where Sam and Dean discover a comic book with plot lines very similar to their own lives. By the time Supernatural‘s fourth season reaches its cliffhanger ending with “Lucifer Rising” (the title neatly sums up the plot), viewers should be fairly hungering for the next episode–a good sign that a veteran series is still hitting its stride.

Extras on the six-disc set include commentary for three episodes: “In the Beginning,” with executive producer Eric Kripke and writer Jeremy Carver; “When the Levee Breaks,” with director Robert Singer and writer Sara Gamble; and “Lucifer Rising” with Kripke. Extended scenes are also available for several episodes, and the features are rounded out by a trio of somewhat ponderous featurettes on the concepts of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell, as depicted in scenes from the show and discussed by its writers, theologians, paranormal investigators, and the like. Clocking in between 10 and 25 minutes apiece, the docs feel padded and somewhat undernourished in the information department. However, they’re unlikely to detract from one’s enjoyment of this stellar season. –Paul Gaita

Review

Supernatural, season 4 makes up for the 17 episodes of season 3 (thanks WGA people!)with a full 22 episode run. This is a rare gem of a show where I find myself rewatching a season every 3-4 months (never, ever boring). Seriously, this show has become something of a religion and has re-introduced me to classic, old school rock from the likes of AC/DC & Grand Funk Railroad.

Outstanding episodes here include: In The Beginning (where we see a smoking hot actress called Amy Gumenick as a young Mary Winchester); Metamorphosis; After School Special; Jump The Shark (which was Eric Kripke’s in-joke about Chad Michael Murray being a third Winchester brother and introduces us to a new foe); The Rapture; Family Remains (unusually news topical) and saving the best for last: Yellow Fever, where at the very end, we have Dean Winchester doing his rendition of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” – believe me, you will watch that scene again and again! It’s no wonder youtube get so many hits on it everyday and proves 80s rock DOES ROCK!!

On a sad note, this series marked the passing away of Kim Manners, who was very much a creative force in terms of direction, the overall look and feel of the show. We miss you, buddy – RIP.

As per usual, Jared Padalecki & Jensen Ackles are outstanding as Sam & Dean Winchester. Jensen is very much the Han Solo character who gets to quip funnier lines and pop culture references throughout; whilst poor old Jared has cranked up the emotional steering wheel 3 notches and is a revelation in the process. Fans of Heroes often do the Hiro scrunchy face when he time travels, but for me, I always do the Sam stretching-his-hand-out-before-extracting-a-demon-from-its-host routine. Before long, everyone will be copying it! These two actors have a chemistry I haven’t seen since Niles & Frasier Crane. Also have to say kudos to Misha Collins as Cassiel, whom I really got used to, even if he does annoy Dean most of the time!

Whilst watching Shatner & Nimoy in Mind Meld, it was great seeing these legends of screen & TV, discussing their fond memories on Star Trek and personal lives. I hope that one day, we’ll get Jensen & Jared doing the same about Supernatural.

PS: Don’t be frustrated about the final scene of Lucifer Rising – Eric Kripke is genius personified and trust that he knows what he’s doing – especially if season five is going to be the last. It’s a classic cliffhanger, but the guessing game is on for what hell Lucifer will unleash! Forget girly rubbish like Twilight and stick to the real deal that is Supernatural! – Jason King, Amazon Review