regarding recording television

british improv (sort of)

last night bbc america started airing KUMARS AT NO. 42. it's an improv comedy talk show with various british guests. and it's good for a lot of laughs. it airs sunday nights on bbc america and it's a must-record, i think.

i worship at the shrine of r. j. cutler

R.J. Cutler is doing all the right things for television. Did you see "American High" on FOX and PBS a few years ago? Did you catch the riveting "Freshman Diaries" on Showtime last year? And, more importantly, are you watching AMERICAN CANDIDATE on Showtime this month?

AMERICAN CANDIDATE (Showtime, Sundays @ 9pm) follows ten people as they theoretically run for President. Each week a candidate is voted off the show (after facing one other candidate in a debate). Three episodes have aired and I'm suddenly ready to watch five more. The show's editing is perfect and the airing of individual issues and positions is more a part of the show than one would expect from a typical reality show.

Watching the show is like checking in with all those kids who participated in Model U.N., forgot about it for a few years, and then resumed that lifestyle with more vigor than ever before. And, as Alex pointed out, didn't realize how silly they looked in the process.

How can you not watch a show that includes an ex-Sheriff with a zeal for the right to bear arms, a super-cute street activist from Boston, a Mormon with strong family values, a space cadet of a venture capitalist, a well spoken out gay man with a huge mailing list, the daughter of Richard Gephardt, a middle aged Gulf War veteran campaigning for veterans' rights who can't seem to get flyers made in time, a bland Republican from San Francisco who seems to have read a lot of self-help books, an attractive liberal from Washington state who used to drive a Camaro and a Peta activist with a post-op campaign manager. If you've got Showtime OnDemand, it's worth starting at the beginning.

"let him in. let him in."

monday night at 7pm on espn2, you must watch the show mitch produced. it's called UTILITYMAN: THE QUEST FOR COOPERSTOWN and it stars the sklar brothers as they attempt to have st. louis cardinal, jose oquendo, inducted into the hall of fame.

i just finished watching the show and it's very funny. quite a few moments had me laughing out loud.

complain complain complain

Can we all agree that the hard drive in the Time Warner Cable DVR is too small? If you record a few movies a week in addition to a regular set of television shows, you're going to have to watch all of it fairly quickly in order to avoid the deletion of anything. It's terribly frustrating.

that little red dot

aaron barnhart of tv barn on what makes trio so great and why it's a shame the channel could be seeing its final days.

my eyeballs will pop out of my sockets

this isn't really about recording tv. it's more about watching it.
the giant tv screens are coming

it's an article about a company working to create inexpensive displays that can be rolled up like posters.

but is mcdonalds having a contest this year?

matt haughey of pvrblog has a great summary of what to expect in terms of olympics coverage from nbc. he also offers a few suggestions to nbc about how to do a better job making all sports available at all times, including archery! his sensible solution for putting video files of the archery events online and selling ad space on those files to bow and arrow retailers makes me wonder if anyone from nbc is listening to him. if they aren't, they should be.

he also point to this tv listings page so you know what to expect in terms of coverage from all the various nbc channels.

it's summer, and i'm easy

i finally watched NIP/TUCK tonight. it was good. i'll start watching on a regular basis.

AMERICAN CANDIDATE on showtime is also good. it's the new reality series by r.j. cutler.

and i've been won over by ENTOURAGE. i just watched the third episode and i laughed once or twice and found myself enjoying the show. if you gave up after episode one, do yourself a favor and catch up. samaire armstrong (anna from THE OC) gets about eight lines per episode!!!

am i the only one who likes the metro channel?

the new york times does a little more explaining about the situations with mets games / fox sports new york / msg network / metro channel.

tom @ the media drop metions the situation and reminds everyone that both companies are being difficult and that time warner is urging cablevision to allow the channels to remain on the air while negotiations continue.

mets on tv, part 1

I want to make a longer, more researched entry about the topic of watching the METS on Time Warner Cable in New York. Right now I will say that I just got off the phone with Time Warner Cable to find out if they could give me a discount on the Extra Innings package (not that Mets games will be on that, as they'll be blacked out). No dice. The guy at TWC was kind enough to give me the phone number for Cablevision. I'm currently on hold, waiting for a customer service representative.

I also checked out the bulletin board on the mets website and it'll be interesting to watch the discussion there after tomorrow night's game doesn't air on cable in New York.

According to the Cablevision website, it doesn't look like my street in Brooklyn is served by them. I'm ready to switch cable services, if that's what it takes (as long as I can still have a dvr and Trio).

Here's a Daily News story on the subject. I can only hope tomorrow will bring a more thorough story and some hint of when the dispute will be resolved.

Somehow, there's a way to tie all of this in with cable a la carte pricing.

I'm very frustrated that I can't watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it.

some tv writing

Salon's Heather Havrilesky is on top of her game today. She writes about television for Salon and today's column of I LIKE TO WATCH is all about:

CELEBRITY POKER SHOWDOWN - "Foley is not only extremely funny, but he's Canadian which means he's a nice person, plus I'm pretty sure he's not gay."

BIG BROTHER - "Like a greasy, lukewarm burger served under glaring neon lights in a tacky, orange-plastic setting, "Big Brother" was always the Hardee's of reality TV."

THE ASHLEE SIMSPON SHOW - "Aside from the obvious fact that I'm trying to humanize myself by letting you know that I spent part of my weekend watching a 19-year-old lament how totally hard it is to, like, make an album, I actually kind of enjoyed it."

She also writes about AMERICAN CANDIDATE (Showtime, Sunday nights) but I didn't read that part as I haven't seen the show yet. It's on the DVR and I'm all set to watch this week.

And for a great take on AMISH IN THE CITY, you must read what Andrea Seigel has to say about the show: "AITC has cast Ariel, vegan space cadet, the first vegan I've ever had the privilege of watching who's adopted the lifestyle not because she believes in the autonomy of animals, but because she seems to think they're out to get us."