Memorial Weekend Update

We hope everyone has a safe and rewarding Memorial Day Weekend. Like most of you – we will be out till Tuesday. So if you need some help – thank you for your patience. Just send us an email info@liketelevison.com. We’ll be with as soon as we get back. Till then – here’s a page highlighting our Memorial Day video vault.

John Wayne & Poodle Pie!

Happy Birthday to Marion…. i mean John Wayne, also known by his moniker – The Duke! On May 26, 1907 – John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison), was born in Winterset, Iowa. Though loved by millions of fans for his straight forward honesty and no nonsense nature, the critics were not that friendly. He was too gruff, and bull headed. etc etc… a man’s man – not the sensitive mamby pamby type of guy Hollywood critics embrace. But – cut the man some slack – that is just how he was. He would go on to win just one Oscar in 1970 for Best Actor in True Grit, as the one eyed tough guy – Rooster Cogburn.

LikeTelevision features a really fun John Wayne movie called McLintock – where politically incorrect testosterone grit – just shines. The movie even features a scene where he spanks his estranged wife, played beautifully by a wonderful actress named Maureen O’Hara. (go to the McLintock page to see an enhanced frame of the spanking, in all its glory). Even more fun – is the incredibly funny home grown funny trailer, made by LikeTelevision’s witty virtuso Frank Random. The trailer was made in the early days in the war on terror.. or the war on terrorists shortly after 09/11/2001… and it remains a great peice of biting acerbic satire today. (The Duke’s name in the film is George W. McLintock… and the trailer makes an implied reference to George W, aka Dubya the younger…. and offers a terrific suggestion for this holiday weekend – “let’s not let an old Indian raid ruin a good Barbeque – Meat’s ON!). Anyway… in honor of John Wayne, and the upcoming long Memorial Day Weekend – we thought the trailer was worth highlighting.

Also of note – it’s Tonto’s birthday (05/26/12 – Born in Ontario, Canada)… aka the very cool actor named Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto on the Lone Ranger. And also Robert Morley has a birthday today (b. May 26, 1908 in Semley, Wiltshire, England, UK) – he was a wonderful British actor who you’d probably recognize – but couldn’t remember his name. While most might remember him in John Huston’s classic – Beat the Devil (written by Truman Capote) with Humphrey Bogart, Gini Lolabrigida, and Peter Lorre… and the stunning Jennifer Jones, who was married to Hollywood heavyweight producer, David O. Selznick. (she was awesome in The Man with the Grey Flannel Suit and A Farewell to Arms with Gary Cooper – but i digress). Let’s get back to Robert Morley – if you wanna have some fun – by all means check out Theater of Blood (starring Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, and Robert Morley). Morley plays a harsh critic of washed up Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart (Uncle Vinny)… In Theater of Blood, Morley plays an effeminate (perhaps gay, who knows… ) critic who just loves his 2 little toy poodles. Anyway… Vincent Price exacts revenge on all these critics by acting out some horror from a Shakepeare play…. in Morley’s case, the play is TITUS ANDRONICUS… where the character ends up eating his own children baked in a pie. Since Morley has no kids … Uncle Vinny decides to serve him the little poodles baked in a pie. It is one of the most wonderful scenes.. you probably never even heard about. As chilling as anything Quentin Tarantino ever served up. And in case you missed it… or don’t have time to watch it… by all means check out the FREE trailer, again – pure genius by LikeTelevision’s own Frank Random.. and read the commentary, which features all kinds of wonderful references to Shakespeare, and the fate met by the critics.

TITUS ANDRONICUS:
Why, there they are both, baked in that pie;
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
‘Tis true, ’tis true; witness my knife’s sharp point.

New Movies, Rotations, What’s Next

Lots to update…. yikes! First off, Ozu’s classic story about the travelling troubadours from Japan – Floating Weeds is now ready for viewing. See the previous post, or check out the movie page. It is a really cool film.

The LikeTelevision elves have been busy updating behind the scenes – creating a ton of new movie options for the feeling lucky link on the movie page – to reflect all the new movies we recently added to the library. This will make it more obvious to see what new movies are being added to our ever expanding library of entertainment media. And unlike some other sites – we always try to add content that is worth watching, as opposed to just adding content just to make the library big. Really – who cares if we just added a ton of junk?

We have also made a bunch of download rotations – removing downloads for Hercules Unchained, Jungle Book, Ugetsu, The Woman Hunter and a few more to make room for other downloads. Just added to the download library – Cyrano, Floating Weeds, a Jackie Chan movie, and Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin’s first comedy duo blast – At War with the Army. Also of note – as we expected, The Battle of Algiers – a great documentary film about terrorists which recently topped Andy Griffith in your tops picks wouldn’t last very long at the top. Way to go Andy – back at number one.

And here’s what’s coming – a very early Sally Field movie called – Maybe I’ll Be Home in the Spring from the early 70s (yes, Sally Field was Sister Bertrille in the Flying Nun..but in this movie, she has a fall from grace)… oh my!… an authentic That 70s Show. Oh brother, what a silly movie – though of course that is not what it was meant to be. Denise Miller (Sally Field) gets kicked out of the house by her parents, played by Jackie Cooper (from the Little Rascals) and Eleanor Parker (Zosh on Man with the Golden Arm). The she joins a hippie commune, experiments with drugs, and gets herself a rebel boyfriend, played by David Carradine, a.k.a. grasshopper from the popular TV show, Kung Fu. And what a creep he is in this movie – more of a locust than a grasshopper. Anyway – Denise comes home, her parents are still, you know – a drag man…. but then she gets even more confused when she sees her sister begin to follow her wayward path into teenage angst and despair. Heavy man, really heavy. In case you forgot how insipid all this whiny hippie talk was – just watch this movie. A real classic – back in the days when gas prices were soaring, the Vietnam War was on the front pages of every newspaper, and the counter culture was going to bring us a brand new day of peace and love. ha! So if you think life is meant to be endured… why, you’ll love this movie. If however, you have found that life is a joy filled gift – check out some of the FUN classics from Andy Griffith, Frank Capra, Bonanza, Johnny Carson, or the Beverly Hillbillies.

Next Up- Ozu’s Floating Weeds

Just decided to take a break from re-digitizing the next movie – director Sanjuri Ozu’s very very cool film from 1959 – Floating Weeds (Ukigusa), about a travelling theater troupe in South Japan. While many might argue that Tokyo Story is Ozu’s masterpiece – my personal vote goes to Floating Weeds. For 1959 – this film is nothing short of amazing in its use of color and the beauty of each frame is as glorious as an Ikebana masterpiece. (Ikebana…. is the Japanese art of flower arrangement in case you were wondering). When you watch this film – you will wonder why the heck you never even heard of this man – who is an absolute genius… go figure… Americans are blessed in many areas, yet so poor in other ways. When you watch the movie, you will long for simpler times, before the cell phone rang all day, before the daily medications for whatever ails you, before the constant pounding of pushy ads and browser pop-ups. Sometimes we think we have it so good… but as this film shows – we sure give up a lot with each advance in technology.

and speaking of technology… i gotta get back to work encoding this wonderful movie… we hope to have it ready for tomorrow… but it won’t get done if i don’t get back to work. HA! One more techno tidbit… today we celebrate the birth of the helicopter – created May 24, 1940 by Igor Sikorsky. As the world goes round and round… make sure you raise your glass today for Sikorsky’s helicopter! Looking for a helicopter laugh… check out Twirly Birds.

Andy Griffith Dethroned?

Yikes! – a sign of the times – The Battle of Algiers dethrones Andy Griffith’s long reign at #1 as our user’s picks… but the latest update shows Battle of Algiers, a disturbing documentary related to current world anxieties, as the new champ. We heard it was mentioned on some show today. Go figure. There’s lots of fun content at our site too. Go to a channel, movies, classic tv, commercials, history or cartoons. The Battle of Algiers is a very good film, a really awesome film… but it is hard to watch. My personal preference is more inclined to fun. Don’t count old Andy out – i bet Andy gets back on top. Have a great weekend.

History Doesn’t Repeat Itself – but it Rhymes

I am always a little blown away about these weird, “ironic“, circumstancial, and what we call “synchronicity” – of our daily lives of working here behind the scenes at LikeTelevision. Of course – it is not just at work, a lot of the weird circumstances are related to our personal lives at well… but there clearly seems to be messages blowing in the wind, that are unseen to our eyes, unheard to our ears – yet still somehow there to see and experience if one is so inclined to travel through life with an open heart and an open mind. Or perhaps it is related to faith – i don’t know, but something as powerful (or more powerful) as gravity or magnetism… (both unseen forces, but at least we have made strides to define them, and readily admit – they exist) is going on. Do you see it and feel it too?

I really do not feel like going into details about the latest synchronicity – it is personal – well kind of anyway… i just felt compelled to write something about it… and pose the question – do you feel it too?

Long ago – we used to play a fun game, devised as a live video performance, a show actually – that we aired every Friday night – called Synchronicity. For the show – we would pick a movie or short film on the site, and play some music from a CD or album (yes, we are really old, and still love vinyl… and think mp3 files sound brittle and yucky… ouch to our ears) while truning down the audio track from the film. It all started with – the classic, The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon – an urban legend, that we can not take credit for… but please, by all means – spread the rumor – it all started at LikeTelevision – HA! From there – we explored new combinations – and when we aired it, it was always the first time we heard it too, which made it all the more fun and a great way to spend a Friday evening with friends. Here are some of the best from that series – Owl Creek Bridge and Blind Faith… wow, that was great. Another classic – was Beyond Bengal and Parliment’s Greatest Hits – that was so funny we were all in stitches – literally crying it was so over the top. Another classic – was The Secret Life of Adolph Hitler – with Capital Sings, Jerome Kerns. (Kerns, a Jew is writing some of the most lovely and beautiful music… during the 1940s… meanwhile Hitler is bound and determined to murder all the Jews… added even greater irony). That combination was really over the top too… anyway, i wish we could still feature the show – but we saw the writing on the wall with Napster and all, and in short – we were getting too popular to do this kind of stuff, as we were “on the radar screen” as it were. All that remains of this… is some tapes we made of the show, with the new audio, and a reference to it in the Shameless Self-Promotion Showcase trailer for Owl Creek Bridge. Oh well… you will have to try it at your own house. It is a lot of fun, especially if you are creative in your choice of music and movies. Gotta get back to work…. next up – Ozu’s classic – Floating Weeds.

New Movie Download – Cyrano de Bergerac

And here it is – Jose Ferrer stars as Cyrano de Bergerac, one of the greatest tragic romances in literary history. Edmond Rostand’s play – brought to life by Ferrer’s Oscar winning performance. What a great movie. We are currently uploading the mpeg files for download – so please be patient if you are reading this as a fresh post (05-18-04). The MPEG files for this movie will be ready to download shortly. We hope you enjoy the film as much as we did. Great stuff – another winner by producer Stanley Kramer.

What’s next at LikeTelevision

Yee Haw – the gomer’s at LikeTelevision have some very cool movie content coming down the pipeline and we thought we should tell you about. Next up, is the best screen adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s classic play – Cyrano de Bergerac(1950) starring Jose Ferrer (who happens to be George Clooney’s uncle, via marriage to Rosemary Clooney, and the father-in-law of Debby Boone). Well, Ferrer’s performance as Cyrano is nothing short of brilliant. He won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1951, beating out William Holden in Sunset Blvd, Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride, Jimmy Stewart in Harvey, and Louis Calhern in The Magnificent Yankee. Cyrano de Bergerac was an expert swordsman & poet, as suave as they come – but he had this nose the size of a small pickle. Cyrano’s gift of the written and spoken word, is used to help another man court the lady he really loves, Roxane played by Mala Powers. How silly… & crazy is that? A great story. The film is directed by Michael Gordon, who also directed Pillow Talk – with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. The executive producer for Cyrano was Stanley Kramer, who could be the best all time executive producer, a guy who could spot a winner. He produced films like Inherit the Wind(1960), Guess who’s Coming to Dinner(1967), High Noon(1952), The Caine Mutiny(1954), The Defiant Ones(1958), and The Wild One(1953)… to name but a few. The film remains the best screen adaptation of Rostand’s play, Cyrano de Bergerac. Coming early next week.

Next in line – Yasujiro Ozu’s Ukigusa – or Floating Weeds which is the US release title. And who is Yasujiro Ozu you ask… he’s listed in the Critic’s poll of the top 10 directors of all time at the British Film Institute. Tokyo Story or Tokyo monogatari(1953) is by far his best known work. An awesome film. We will have Floating Weeds ready later this month. And if you haven’t seen the Jackie Chan movie Wheels on Meals – by all means, check it out.

Cool Jackie Chan Movie

Check out the latest new movie download at LikeTelevision – Wheels On Meals, starring Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Biao Yuen, Lola Fomer, and Benny “the Jet” Urquidez. Jackie and Biao play street vendors in Spain who help out a gorgeous damsel in distress named Sylvia, played by Lola Fomer. The film features all the wonderful martial arts kung fu choreography you’d expect from a Jackie Chan movie, great comedy, a little romance and also – a beautiful leading lady. Even cooler – the film is in chinese (mandorin or cantonese…. i have no idea) with English subtitles. If you are a fan of Jackie Chan – i bet you are going love this movie! and – ooops… in the last post, i mentioned Jackie Chan had a jeri curl perm.. and was wrong (but admitting this now makes me right :~). Why anyone can see – that’s Sammo Hung in the perm hair, duh?

Also new – just rotated in some new killer Johnny Carson clips (which are free to all our guests), featuring some of the finest moments from The Tonight Show. Guests include boxing’s all time greatest – Muhammad Ali in top form, The Smother’s Brother’s, a hilarious Alpo dog food commercial gone bad (also check out this Ken-L Ration tv commercial with real horse meat!, George Foreman, Groucho Marx & more.

Want more Groucho – just search for Groucho! Have fun.

Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin Classic!

After their success in My Friend Irma, starring Mary Wilson & Diana Lynn – Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin were offered a movie deal to showcase their talents as a comedy duo – and here it is, the first Martin & Lewis film, At War With the Army. This is a really fun movie, with a bunch of twists and turns AND the film also introduces a new star – Polly Bergen, who has a sizling duet with Deano crooning in a recording booth. I was always a fan of the countless Martin & Lewis films – and this one might just be my favorite. We hope you enjoy it.

Next up – an early offering from Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, Wheels on Meals (Kwai tsan tseh original title, aka Los Supercamorristas, aka Million Dollar Heiress, aka Weapon X, aka Spartan X) was released in 1984 and features Jackie and Sammo as Kung Fu fighting street vendors. It is a lot of good fun if you are a Jackie Chan or martial arts fan. Of course – we already featured Jackie Chan at LikeTelevision – who played an uncredited extra in Bruce Lee’s cult classic – The Chinese Connection (1973), where he played one of Jing Wu’s students. Jackie was also an uncredited extra in Bruce Lee’s epic – Enter the Dragon. Jump ahead few years… to 1984…. and get ready for Wheels on Meals, where you can see Jackie coming into his own as a great in the martial arts genre. He has an incredible fight scene with Benny Urquidez, who plays a scumball criminal – but my favorite scene has Jackie sporting a Jeri Curl haircut. It must be seen… i don’t think the hair style works for him. HA!

And why not jump into the past to get a better perspective on current events while you wait for us to finish putting that film together. We would like to recommend one of the best prison films of all time – Truman Capote’s Glass House, starring Alan Alda, Vic Morrow, and Billy Dee Williams. Check it out!