American Idle

I was surprised when I learned about the show called “America’s Got Talent.” Their new season is starting up and while I’m all for junk culture, I’m still smarting from hearing and reading the show’s horribly ungrammatic title. Lets take a look at “America’s Got Talent”–I presume in this case that the apostrophe is representing “has” (or, since the “s” is there, is it representing “ha” and Simon Cowell is laughing at us?) but then the title is “America Has Got Talent” which sounds really really stupid. (Or maybe the apostrophe is a possessive and this show is about how America has this talent for, um, “gotting?”) Everyone can understand what the title is really conveying so my point is kind of moot, but when did the language–and not just regionally but on a major network show–turn into such a big bowl of mush? My suggestion for a change is to make it a show about the obesity epidemic in this country and change the name to “America’s Gut Talent” which I would definitely watch with grammatic pride intact.

Ace of Base

Congratulations are in order to CBS and its Sunday Night programming for winning the “Most Rhyming Lineup” award. Here’s what’s on starting at 7pm CST:

The Amazing Race
Cold Case
Without a Trace

Now, all they have to do after the local news is show a repeat of Will & Grace and then go right into a hour of Lost in Space (or Melrose Place) and television would finally become really interesting.

Those Were the Days

Kenneth blogged about his love of television theme songs some time back and that got me thinking about TV music. Only two shows that we watch come to mind theme-wise–Medium, which has a sort of Bernard Hermann feel to it, and CSI, which uses “Who Are You” by the Who (the other CSI spin-offs have Who themes as well). I’ve always kind of liked the Law & Order theme song, which I assume was written by Mike Post who also wrote the haunting piano theme for Hill Street Blues. But Law & Order has been on forever with spin offs that take that theme and skew it slightly–I actually tuned into one of those spinoffs just to hear how they would re-work the theme!

Whatever happened to having lyrics in a show theme? I’m scrolling through the networks’ website and noticing a few: Grey’s Anatomy, which is heavy heavy on the mood music, has a few lines in theirs but they don’t always play it. Scrubs has a very short opening-with-lyrics theme. There are plenty of shows that I’ve never seen but the newer ones that I’ve view all have unmemorable music over the credits and I’m wondering why this is the rule these days.

I liked how Twin Peaks had themes for every part of the show, like a movie or a soap opera does. While this is quite cheesy, music designed for the show really adds to the mood and keeps my interest. And recycling classic rock does not cut it for me–I’ve heard all those songs waaaay to much to be able to meld them with modern storylines. I’m sure there are scads of musicians out there who could whip together some good stuff for tee vee.

Well Done

We’ve been watching “Medium” since it debuted earlier this year. And it’s pretty good eye candy–Patricia Arquette is curvy with smoldering blue eyes and Jake Weber is some strange hunky child of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman–but it’s also a surprisingly well crafted show. During the credit roll for one of the first episodes I was pleased to see “Medium” was the creation of Glen Gordon Caron who also created one of my favorite shows “Moonlighting.” I didn’t watch much TV in the 80’s, but “Moonlighting” sucked me in with great writing and the great chemistry of Bruce Willis and Cybil Sheppard. It was pure escapist entertainment and that was a big deal for a very cynical 15-year-old.

“Medium” is not really like “Moonlighting” at all–instead of a cheesy private investigation firm we have a psychic mom who dreams about crimes and helps the Phoenix DA solve cases. Both shows are at their best in the scenes with the couple at the center–Maddie and David play word games and eschew an obvious sexual tension (at least for the first few seasons) while Joe and Allison Dubois are married with kids but still spark off of each other. If I close my eyes while watching these scenes on “Medium” I can hear a little bit of Maddie Hayes in Allison Dubois. Where David Addison was obnoxious and self centered, Joe Dubois is droll and sarcastic, often summing up the ridiculousness (or charm) of the moment with a quick riff and a deadpan look that always makes me smile.

We’re a bit worried about this week’s show as it’s going to be in 3-D. This is only the first season and we don’t want them to jump the shark so soon, though I did pick up two copies of TV GUIDE at the store (only 99?) just for the 3-D glasses.