NEW – Cool, Weird and Funky!

Anyone who has been with us a subscriber knows… when it looks like it is getting “quiet” at LikeTelevision (that is, not as many new additions as usual)…. something is happening behind the scenes … something cool…. and weird is brewing in our little heads… and yes… once again – this is the case. Part of what makes LikeTelevision so different (the oddball charm) – is that we just love funky video content. The kind of whacky media that is lost to time, because it is just to bizarre for all the men in gray flannel suits walking about from dusk to dawn looking to make a buck. Well, we are certain that there is no money to be made from this new library of insane content – but for us, it is a treasure. We hope to offer you a few choice samples in the coming weeks that will cement in your minds, once and for all – that we have totally lost our minds. But – the catch 22 applies, unless you become nuts in the upside down nature of our world… if you stay normal – well hey, then YOU are the one who is insane. If you can stay normal… well that’s just crazy. Go read Joseph Heller’s epic novel on the subject – Catch 22 if you need more background on the theory.

Come back later this week for a taste of the new library additions – that take you back to the days, when weird was cool. We will as always – keep you posted of new additions in the LikeTelevision Blog

Next Up – Killer Thriller

Assuming all goes well – we will be providing another awesome film, you might have missed that is worthy of your time. Diabolique, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of the best murder mystery thrillers ever made, using a tried and proven theme. A wife who is a little batty loves her husband… but the husband has a mistress. Then he gets murdered – but wait, no body (corpus) or Corpus Delicti. Things get really messy as the film slowly unflods the story… and the suspense is almost unbearable. Who did it? What the heck really happened? Is he really dead? Was there a murder or was it a game? The inspector searches for the truth. The sordid affairs in this crazy love triangle are not solved by some simple Pythagorean Theorem… oh no…. this film has all the twists, mind games and tricks of the best films in this murder mystery genre. Clearly inspired by the work of Alfred Hitchcock – Diabolique has the same kind of feel as Rear Window or Vertigo. Starring Simone Signoret as Nicole Horner, she is every bit as lovely as Kim Novak, Tippi Hedren or Grace Kelly and her performance is flawless. The film won Best Foreign Language Film (tied with Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D) in 1955 by the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and also a Special Edgar for Best Foreign Film in 1956.

And in another weird synchronicty – old Frank Random put together another funky trailer to get you excited for the internet premiere of Diabolique. Teaming a favorite Joe Jackson song called Steppin’ Out with some scenes from the film – check it out! Also weird synchronicty… this blog post follows the post on Lou Gehrig, a great in baseball history… and the oddball link of synchronicity of course, is Shoeless Joe Jackson… who is remembered as the guy who defiled baseball by taking money to throw the World Series in 1919. (for a time, the White Sox were renamed the Black Sox and Shoeless Joe was banned from Major League Baseball. His guilt remains in question… but i digress. This is getting Diabolical – ha!

Lou Gehrig’s Birthday Tribute

On June 19, 1903 – one of the greats in American history was born – Lou Gehrig, a terrifc baseball player for the New York Yankees during the days of Babe Ruth who died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) when he was 37. Many of you also know that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis was to be known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was known as The Iron Horse – because he Played in 2,130 consecutive games from 1925-39 a major league record until Cal Ripken Jr. surpassed it in 1995. Lou also led AL in RBI 5 times and HRs 3 times; drove in 100 runs or more 13 years in a row; 2-time MVP (1927,36); hit .340 with 493 HRs over 17 seasons; led NY Yankees to 6 World Series titles.

But in truth…. he is best remembered for showing grace while the disease slowly ended his career, and made life very difficult for those he cared for and loved. And yes… one can clearly draw parallels with the Gipper, Ronald Reagan and how our 40th President and his family showed grace in the face of extreme hardship. If you never heard his farewell speech – we created a small 176k wave file to give you an idea…. (right click, save target as to download it)… or better yet – check out this clip from The Lou Gehrig Story of Lou Gehrig’s wonderful farewell speech- which is part newsreel footage – and part dramatization.

And by all means – check out the entire classic tv show – The Lou Gehrig Story, sponsored by Chrysler, complete with some vintage commercials – and yes – Russell Johnson is the disgruntled player in the show – and is best known as the professor from Gilligan’s Island. The You Asked For It clip – is also very cool.

The Urinal Screen – the last marketing frontier

The Urinal Screen is one of our favorite comedy shorts – and because we have so much content in the media library… some of these gems get lost in the largess. So let us point you to this honey – The Urinal Screen!

Since the comedy bit originally aired in the summer of 2000 as part of the Zim Zum show, beleive it or not – some noodle heads at MIT created a hybrid device, which was basically a video game, where you controlled the action via pointing the urine stream into a simple device that handled left, right, up down and diagonal too i think. Learn more from a previous blog entry for October 21st – which made a connection between the genius of Brad Spivey and Verner Von Braun. In case you don’t know… Brad Spivey is really a code jockey genius… a rocket scientist! and is the guy most responsible for all the back end technology he created as part of our LikeTelevision family of knuckleheads. If you want to know more about his ficticious alter ego – check out the interview between Dodge Benson and Brad Spivey, world famous, go to guy of commercial advertising, watch episode six from Zim Zum to get that story.

LikeTelevision -Forbes Best of the Web Award

Recently – we heard from one of our subscribers that we had won a Best of the Web Award from Forbes in the Television Category. Cool! LikeTelevision also received a glowing review from Beth Kracklauer of Forbes – here’s an except – “you can access thousands of TV episodes, movie trailers, vintage commercials, cartoons, musical segments, newsreels, documentaries–even a handful of movies. Bonanza, Beverly Hillbillies, Flash Gordon, Lone Ranger, Rock ‘Em-Sock ‘Em Robot commercials, classic 1930s scare documentaries like Reefer Madness and Sex Madness–the list goes on. The selection can be unpredictable–a fair number of old favorites like Ozzie and Harriet alongside plenty of obscure titles like Ramar of the Jungle–but the haphazardness is part of the site’s oddball charm.” Cool… oddball charm, i can live with that. All of the oddball elves at Liketelevision say – thank you for your kindness and support. Have a great weekend!

No Smoking plus an Opposing View

Back in the days of yore, circa the summer of 2000 – LikeTelevision produced a musical variety show called Zim Zum. Going well beyond – odd ball charm (a comment from a recent piece from Forbes Magazine about LikeTelevision – after winning a Best of the Web Award from Forbes. woo woo – thanks!)… Anyway… going beyond – oddball charm – Zim Zum was just plain VERY very weird. Indeed it was. The first Zim Zum show featured Lite n Lively, the first openly gay rap duo and the clip featured today is from the final episode. We thought it was relevant, since we heard that legislation was pending in California – to BAN smoking from all public beaches. Wow… pretty harsh. Getting busted for a stray butt in a land full of thongs and bikinis seems a bit strange to us gomers here in North Carolina. Anyway… we suggest the politicians involved check out this clip – called No Smoking before rendering a final decision on this pressing matter. You might want to watch it ibehind closed doors, in a smoke filled room, where all the REAL decisions get made.

Ronald Reagan Dies 06/05/2004

Ronald Reagan died Saturday June 5, 2004 in his Bel Air, California home after suffering through a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Reagan was born in Tamlico, Il on February 6, 1911. He went on to a football star at Eureka College in Illinois and studied Drama. After a short stint as a soldier in the US Army, he became a Hollywood actor and was one of the Hollywood Ten (a group of actors who met with organized labor – which led to threats of communism, blacklisting, and the McCarthey hearings. On March 40, 1980 – Reagan was elected as the 40th president of the United States. Our country was fortunate to have such a man, at such a time in our nation’s short histoy. He stood up for what he believed in, yet also did his best to be gracious to those who disagreed with him. Often, Reagan was quite funny – and he made us laugh. Even if you did not care for the man’s political views, you got to admit – Reagan had heart, a great big heart and i think that is what made him so endearing, and yes enduring too. We’ll miss Gipper.

Check out the video library for archive clips for Ronald Reagan – just search for Reagan. Besides the shorter news reel clips – let us direct you to a great clip from a show called GE Theater. In this episode, called I’m a Fool, based on the story by the same name from Sherwood Anderson – Ronald Reagan introduces the show and the two rising young thesbians – James Dean and Natalie Wood. I’m a Fool also stars Eddie Albert, best known for his work on Green Acres, as Oliver Douglas.

New Teaser for the Trailer Park

Coming down the home stretch on the media pipeline – a classic early 70s teenage angst, Vietnam era quagmire, counter culture hippy peace love preachy drama – yes… woo woo, with Sally Field as the nice girl from a good home (well…. actually, a dysfunctional home) and David Kung Fu Carradine, as a bad ass biker rebel without a cause hippy… we are doing the final steps to get this movie ready for the library…. but allow us to tweak you now… with one of Frank’s teasers. A new trailer …feel the angst… – and the “let’s change the world” philosophy… Frank has nailed it again…. Watch Sally Field yell – FLACK!!!!! Still laughing…. be patient… it will be ready shortly in all its 70s glory – Maybe I’ll be home in the Spring .

After that… an excellent film called Diabolique – a murder mystery and psychological crime drama with all the cool twists and turns of Double Indemnity (an awesome film w/ Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray)… Dialobique has been called the best movie Hitchcock never made. If you enjoyed Witness For the Prosecution or Strangers on a Train – you will love this movie. We rate it A+… and it’s coming soon!