The long-anticipated "Saturday TV Funhouse" DVD arrives, "Viva Blackpool" returns, and why did she wear lipstick to her mastectomy?
All times Central.
SUNDAY
Some
of you (actually, very few of you) saw "God or the Girl," an A&E
program earlier this year about four young men deciding whether to
pursue the priesthood and say goodbye to their honeys. Now we have "The
Monastery," a docu-series about five young men who agree to live at an
abbey for the biblical allotment of 40 days and nights. It premieres 9
p.m. on TLC. Unlike on "God or the Girl," these aren't well-adjusted
seminarians. These are secular Joes trying to reboot their lives with a
spiritual upgrade. You might say it's "Starting Over" meets "Big
Brother," or rather "big brothers," the 30 monks who agree to welcome
the five into their monastery. For more about the show, read Bill Tammeus's column.
MONDAY
"Why I Wore Lipstick to My
Mastectomy," airing 8 p.m. on Lifetime, stars Sarah Chalke of "Scrubs"
as Geralyn Lucas and is based on Lucas' book of that title which
chronicled her treatment for breast cancer. A successful 27-year-old TV
producer, Geralyn discovers a lump one day and then, after a flurry of
tests, is told it's malignant. It all happens so quickly she has to ask
a nurse, "Should I be freaking out?" Geralyn tries to decide between a
lumpectomy and a mastectomy, and must sort through the conflicting
advice she gets from doctors, including the one she's married to
(played by Jay Harrington). All this is done with a light touch, but
not so light that it trivializes Geralyn's agonizing choice.
TUESDAY
"Saturday
TV Funhouse," a collection of inflammatory and hilarious cartoons from
former "SNL" writer Robert Smigel, is out on DVD. These bits, which
originally aired during "SNL," introduced the memorable superhero
tandem, "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" (voiced by Stephen Colbert and Steve
Carell). The main feature on the DVD includes new video of the Duo
interacting with "SNL" cast members, notably our town's Jason Sudeikis.
The DVD jacket proclaims, "No subject is off limits," and the contents
live up to the billing. The set even includes Smigel's "Schoolhouse
Rock" parody, "Conspiracy Theory Rock," that listed numerous corporate
misdeeds by GE, NBC's parent company, was aired just once in 1998 and
has never been seen again until now. ("SNL" producer Lorne Michaels
ordered it cut out of the repeats, saying it wasn't funny enough. Well,
I suppose if you were a GE executive, that would be true.) Also on the
DVD is an unfinished cartoon of a nature show hosted by President Bush
that savagely comments on his handling of the Iraq crisis.
SATURDAY
"Viva Blackpool" returns, for one night only, with
its Peabody Award-winning combo of zany intrigues and toe-tapping
musical numbers in a two-hour movie airing 9 p.m. on BBC America.
Ripley (David Morrissey) is back in Blackpool, England, wearing a frock
of dubious provenance and pronouncing couples married at his
Vegas-styled Chapel of Love. Along comes Kitty De-Luxe (Megan Dodds), a
Texas honey who's stood up at his altar by her boyfriend ... and it's
love at first slight. Ripley and Kitty soon get ensnarled in a plot to
steal the World Cup, in between renditions of "Ring of Fire," "It's Not
Unusual" and other songs. All great fun, and it's nice to see success
hasn't gone to Morrissey's head: He still can't sing.
THE QUOTE:
"He wasn't in the early draft of the script. He was added, when I felt
the show needed a little more levity." - Tim Kring, explaining to
Zap2It.com the creation of Hiro (Masi Oka, pictured), the breakout
character of NBC's breakout hit "Heroes." Tonight, as "Sunday Night
Football" gets a bye week (rather than compete with the World Series on Fox), NBC airs three repeats of "Heroes" starting
at 7 p.m. on KSHB.
Great news on Saturday TV Funhouse. Any word on a possible DVD release of the 9-episode TV Funhouse series Smigel did for Comedy Central with the Anipals etc.?
Posted by: hinty | October 26, 2006 at 03:26 AM