The Wild Wild West courtesy Paramount
The other day I filled my cookie card with 12 stamps and was rewarded with a free cookie. Last year I used points from my local grocery store to give me a sizable discount off a waffle iron. I use airline points to get free flights, and points earned at the theater for free movie tickets. Programs like these are designed to reward customers for being loyal — they're designed to keep people coming back.The home entertainment industry seems, for the most part, designed to screw its loyal customers. "Oh, you bought the regular edition of the movie? Hah! We have a super-duper special edition with 20 minutes of new material, new extras and other awesome stuff you'll want because you're a fan of the movie." I'll admit to falling for the trap a number of times; I own two copies of The Bourne Identity on DVD (and another on HD DVD); two copies of Criterion Collection's Brazil release (because the first wasn't anamorphic); I had two versions of Last of the Mohicans before I sold one; an...
read more
James Gandolfini by Craig Blankenhorn/HBO, Bob Saget courtesy Everett Collection, The Simpsons courtesy Fox
In honor of Father's Day, we've put together a list of 10 of the most memorable TV dads, all of which you can enjoy again and again on DVD. — Gord Lacey10. Homer Simpson, The SimpsonsHe's been on TV for 19 seasons, entertaining us with his beer-enhanced antics, zany adventures, and love of donuts. If nothing else, he gets credit for parenting three kids that never age. Buy The Simpsons at Amazon.com!9. Andy Taylor, The Andy Griffith ShowWhen you’re an elected official charged with keeping the town safe, you could easily lose sight of your duties at home. But Andy always understood that the most important badge he wore was the one as Opie's dad. Buy The Andy Griffith Show at Amazon.com!8. Tony Soprano, The SopranosTony got a gold star for heading up two families: the one at home with Carmela, Anthony and Meadow, and his other family with Paulie, Silvo and Bobby. What's a father if not a protector? Buy The Sopranos at Amazon.com!7. Al Bundy, Married with ChildrenAl put in l...
read more
Susan Olsen, Christopher Knight, Sherwood Schwartz and Florence Henderson by Alexandra Wyman/ WireImage.com
Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island (he also wrote the catchy Brady theme song), got his well-deserved Hollywood Walk of Fame star Friday. With Florence Henderson (who played Mrs. Carol Brady) and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island) at his side, Schwartz joked that the Oscars had gotten the title of this year's Best Picture winner wrong. "Who says this is No Country For Old Men?" he joked. At 91, the kid's still got it!In honor of Schwartz's achievements, here are my 15 all-time favorite Brady Bunch episodes, in chronological order. (You're lucky I stopped at 15. I could probably rank 100 by memory.)"The Honeymoon": This is the pilot, in which Mike and Carol get married and combine their families, including three boys, three girls, a cat and a dog (who basically ruin the wedding)."Lost Locket, Found Locket": There was not a dry eye in the O'Connor household when we found out that Alice sent Jan the locket because she's a middle child too....
read more
Allan Melvin, a popular character actor best recognized for his roles on The Phil Silvers Show (as Cpl. Henshaw), All in the Family (Archie's bud Barney) and The Brady Bunch (Sam the butcher), on Thursday died of cancer, reports the Los Angeles Times. He was 84.Melvin's 50-plus year career also included guest appearances on such TV shows as The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C.; voicing Magilla Gorilla and Popeye's Bluto; and playing "Al the Plumber" in 15 years' worth of Liquid-Plumr commercials.Melvin is survived by his wife of 64 years, Amalia; a daughter, Jennifer Hanson; and a grandson.
read more
A fun little survey released by Lifetime Products, Inc. — no, not the creator of weepy movies but the world's leading manufacturer of folding tables — says that 31 percent of adults want TV mom Claire Huxtable cooking their Thanksgiving dinner. Carol Brady came in second (with 27 percent), though you know Alice is the one really working the magic behind that island.Other findings from the survey:• Peg Bundy is the TV mom you most want far, far away from the stove.• Speaking of the Bradys, Marcia is the brood member you'd most like at your kiddie table. (Jan came in second; cry me a river.)• Adults and children alike voted Miley Cyrus the child star they most want seated at the kiddie table. (Perhaps only so they can sell the folding chairs next to her for $2,000 a pop.)• Today's kids prefer High School Musical's Gabriella (51 percent) to Sharpay (19 percent), while Drake beats Josh (45 to 37 percent).
read more
Apparently it's not the story of two bi-curious girls named Brady. Though Maureen McCormick's forthcoming autobiography, Here's the Story, is chockablock with revelations relating to the actress' struggles with eating disorders, drug addiction and depression, it does not address any sort of Sapphic experimentation between her and Brady Bunch sis Eve Plumb. Addressing a story that hit the Internet last week and claimed that the book chronicles an on-set affair between Mo and Plumb, the book's publisher tells ABC News, "We are verifying that it is not true."As for the truth about what used to transpire between Tiger and Kitty Carry-all in the doghouse... let's not go there.
read more
Kelly Ripa hosts the TV Land Awards.
When it comes to the increasingly large small-screen, Kelly Ripa has done it all. Soap opera? Check. Daytime talker? Check. Prime-time comedy? Check. Saturday Night Live stop-bys? Check. So who better to oversee this Sunday's TV Land Awards (9 pm/ET) than one of this reporter's most favorite funny girls? TVGuide.com relished the chance to speak with the Live with Regis and Kelly cohost about "remaking" Laverne & Shirley, boogying with the Brady Bunch, stealing someone else's belly button and much, much more.
TVGuide.com: I'm nervous to talk to you, because I always get afraid that Q&Aing a funny person won't yield appropriately funny material. Do you ever have that same concern on Live?Kelly Ripa: I do, I do. I have what I like to refer to as "posttraumatic talk-show disorder," where I'm like, "Oh, that didn't go well. I should have done this this way and that that way...." It'
read more
Maureen McCormick, Celebrity Fit Club
The 1970s' grooviest teen dream queen will be returning to America's living rooms when Celebrity Fit Club 5: Men vs. Women premieres April 22 on VH1. Not that Maureen McCormick or her many incarnations of Marcia, Marcia, Marcia ever left our Brady Bunch-lovin' hearts. After all, the kitschy kidcom loops endlessly in reruns, and its complete-series DVD set — touting a "shag carpet" cover and assorted spin-offs — hits stores today. But the 2007 Mo is about so much more than Davy Jones crushes. Still ebullient and girlishly pretty at 50, she peels back layers of "Brady perfection" to reveal the years of human heartache and loss that led to a 30-pound weight gain and her first-ever reality-TV gig. Here, she gives TVG
read more
Happy belated Halloween. I understand that instead of Halloween office parties, this year there were Office Halloween parties. Get the difference? The word got out that this year there were a lot of Office-inspired Halloween costumes. It's true. Office-inspired Halloween costumes! We have officially arrived. How bizarre. How cool, but how bizarre. Let's hope those women, and in some cases men, who dressed like Meredith look good in a one-size-fits-all denim skirt. There are some fun Office Halloween-party photos up on OfficeTally.com, and I got sent a few photos on MySpace.com/kateflan. Imitation is the highest form of Flannery.... I mean flattery. Thank you. Thanks to all for playing my Office Trivial trivia last week. That was fun. Some of you readers actually admitted that you were stumped! Pretty cool. I generally think of the Office fans as remembering more than I do. (And I'm in the episode!) No, I am not sucking up to the Office fans. I actually find them a little intimidati...
read more
Question: I'm in a bind here. I seem to remember a cartoon version of Happy Days that had Richie, the Fonz and the gang time traveling in a boat. But no one else can recall such a thing. Am I going crazy or did this cartoon really exist?
Answer: I'm tempted to tell you that you are indeed touched in the head and are well on your way to imagining other delusion-spawned shows, like, say, an animated Brady Bunch where Greg, Marsha and the kids run around with two pandas and a magical bird. The thing is, as whacked as those shows sound, Brady Kids and Fonz and the Happy Days Gang really did exist, the latter running on ABC's Saturday-morning schedule from November 1980 to September 1982.
The setu
read more
