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John's Blog

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day....Teach him to use the internet and he won't bother you for weeks!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

More TV Ranting

Why I'm perfectly willing to give most of the stupidity on TV a pass, but then let little things bug the heck out of me is something I can't explain. But for some reason I get fixated on little details that obscure whatever else may be going on. A few of my recent "issues":

  • As if it's not bad enough to see Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart hawking Lipitor in a TV commercial, the most recent one appears to take place in the sweeping futuristic lobby of a medical facility. But despite the fake signs and people walking around in lab coats, the location is easily recognized as the new addition to The Brooklyn Museum of Art. Gee, do you think that large multinational pharmaceutical companies just might lie to us about other things as well?
  • A similar "on-location" bone to pick with "L&O:CI" using the Jacob K. Javits Convection Center. They needed to film a "ripped from the headlines" version of the John Mark Karr story, and they used the center to film a sequence that was supposedly in a Vietnamese airport. Fine, but don't include it's most recognizable architectural feature (the I. M. Pei steel/glass framed skylight) as part of the shoot. Then, as if to make me totally disconnect my reality meter, they cast Liza Minelli in the as the mother of the murdered child. Please, don't let this show jump the shark.
  • And as much as I love L&O, I was kinda' glad I missed last nights' version of the Mel Gibson saga. A great idea, until you cast Chevy Chase in the role. The previews were painful to watch, since he appeared to be horribly overacting. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I feared; with the show being rerun almost around the clock, it shouldn't be that tough to catch it some other time.
  • Not that I'm a big Johnny Cash fan, but the poor dude must be turning over in his grave with the new Choice Hotels commercials. They feature "regular people" singing "I've Been Everywhere"...badly. Luckily, the mute button still works.
  • Speaking of besmirching a legacy, I'm reasonably sure that Rosa Parks wouldn't care what kind of car I drive, and probably wouldn't be too happy to be used as a marketing tool to sell Chevys. The ultimate irony is that she used public transit.
  • In a similar vein I've always had a fear that we would see advertising on MLK day that would be along the lines of the tacky President's Day car ads with actors dressed up as the real deal selling cars. Luckily we've been spared the sight of "I have a dream...a new Toyota for only $15,999!" thanks to the careful stewardship of the King family. And please stop telling us that he was a Republican, I mean...let's get real!
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    || JM, 11:00 AM

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