Hodge Podge B'Gosh

Fox cancels Arrested Development after giving the best comedy on television a “chance” to pick up better ratings by putting it up against MNF (pregame) and pimping Prison Break roughly every 7 minutes.  I’m half-expecting Lincoln Burrows to pop up as Meg Griffin’s new crush or for T-bag to be Dr. House’s next controversial patient.  Way to go, Fox.  I can only be so upset, though.  I knew A.D. was dead man walking this year.  It’s just that I wanted one last complete box set on DVD.  Now they’ll need filler just to put S3 out on two discs.  If you never got into the show, Netflix it.  

IMHO, checking out TV shows is how Netflix really makes ditching Blockbuster worthwhile.  This is something I would never do if my alternatives were buying a box set, borrowing someone else’s box set, or hoping that it might be at the rental store.  This saved me from dropping $40 on a Curb Your Enthusiasm set, a show that had me curious from the hype but I detested as it centered on everything I dislike in New Yorkers.  The latest show I’ve been ‘sampling’ has been Firefly, as an appetizer for when Serenity hits DVD this month (still kicking myself for missing it this summer).  First disc and a half of episodes were shaky because the cast hadn’t developed chemistry yet (almost every show  needs a full season to settle into a groove) and Whedon really telegraphed and rushed character developments and plot points.  The Future meets the Old West theme that he goes for is also a little too disjointed.  However, the ‘Adventures of Young Han Solo’ vibe that the show goes with is a lot of fun.  Only 14 episodes were made, and it wasn’t until episode 6 that I genuinely got into it.  I nearly gave up after episode 4 (Shindig).  All in all, the DVDs have me a little more excited about seeing Serenity, since Joss Whedon probably took it as his chance to stuff in the things he was saving for a 5-season series.       

     If you’ll notice, Shaq has now missed 14 of the 20(+) games I promised he would this year.  He’s said to be out for another 10 days or so, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.  Diesel won’t waste any opportunities to nurse injuries if he can.

     There’s a whole bunch of chatter about the Colts resting their starters toward the end of the season and presumably letting the prospect of a perfect season slip away.  Most of the talking heads don’t like this since an opportunity to have perfect season is so rare that they feel you have to go for it when you can.  I, like most everyone, also don’t like the resting plan, but I could care less about 16-0.  My beef is that resting the starters strikes me as something that isn’t nearly as beneficial as coaches seem to think.  I can recall more incidents of football teams getting rusty from 2 weeks off than I can of a major player going down with injury on week 17.  I say, if someone’s seriously banged up, hold him out.  Otherwise, put the first team out there and pull them late in the game.  Keep them sharp for the postseason, let the team stay on a roll,  and don’t screw the fans that paid hundreds of dollars to see the stars play.

So the wife (like a shocking number of women in my life) adores the Golden Girls TV show, my television equivalent to asparagus. Anytime I turn on the TV, I've got to get it off Lifetime (where apparently now all they do is alternate GGs, The Nanny, and Made-for-TV movies). Anyway, in my bid to stay married despite driving her nuts 24/7, I try to do things for her that involve biting a bullet. So I tend to get her things like a GGs DVD box set and feed her somewhat-scary appetite for Nora Roberts books. In keeping with this spirit while we were in bed watching Sunday Night Football this week, I decided to be cute after surfing the net and sent the computer to goldengirls.com as I was handing her the laptop back. This didn't end well.

It’s interesting to watch things play out with New Orleans and their two wayward pro franchises.  I’m sorry, but Nawlins was a relatively small market to begin with and lost well over half of its population for the short term.  A third of the jobs in the city are gone for good, and if national corporations had a satellite office in town, odds are that they’ve pulled anchor.  This was a city that struggled mightily to support the Saints and Hornets: there was a stadium battle already going on pre-Katrina with the Saints and the state and David Stern put the Hornets on watch last year over their attendance.  The Hornets were dead last in attendance last year, despite cooking the books to record double-sales and other Enron-esque bookkeeping.  As of today, they’re number 7 in the league thanks to Oklahoma City.  They’ve got an option to stay there next year, and rest assured they’ll take it.  The trick for both teams is that they’ve got to avoid looking like rats for leaving, even though it’s the only sensible thing to do.  Leaving New Orleans would be like cutting things off with a crappy girlfriend immediately following the car accident that put her in the hospital.  Tom Benson and George Shinn need to put on a mask and bide their time until they can break things off without being vilified by every national publication.  Benson’s already slipped, but Shinn and Stern have been exceedingly careful with their “we’re absolutely for certain intending to come back until the last minute” plan.  

Saw the Rolling Stones Thursday night.  It’s amazing what animated corpses can do these days.  I suspect that the architect of the Chuck E. Cheese show is behind this tour.  Bravo!