Great debates: '90210' vs. 'Melrose Place'

Today, we begin a new series, "Great Debates," looking at similarly themed TV shows and how they measured up against each other. Since I'm currently revisiting both via DVD, what better way to begin than with the original Beverly Hills, 90210 vs. the original Melrose Place—two Darren Star dramas that had a big part in shaping the television landscape in the '90s (the best decade for TV ever, by the way).
  Obviously, we know Beverly Hills, 90210 debuted first: Melrose Place was its spinoff. How great/terrible was the initial crossover, when Jake had a brief fling with Kelly? But which prime-time soap was better? Both had their share of watershed moments, to be sure: My personal favorites were the Dylan-Toni Marchette story line in season 6 of 90210, and Kimberly's infamous wig reveal on season 2 of Melrose.

PTC names best and worst TV advertisers

The Parents Television Council reminded us lately of its Church Lady tendencies, counting the increasing number of fart jokes and genitalia references on prime-time TV. The group has another announcement to make—to let us know it's watching the ads, too. That comes in the form of its report called "Best and Worst TV Sponsors of 2010." It's not a judgment on commercial content itself (if so, that Viagra-themed Jack in the Box spot would've gotten killed) but a knock on where marketers choose to spend their money. The timing of the PTC statement is no accident. The ultra-conservative group is trying to influence shopping decisions during the holidays. The PTC advises you to patronize Walmart and Sears and buy P&G products, State Farm insurance and Coca-Cola because those sponsors' ads appear during "positive, family-friendly" TV programs. (I think everybody should boycott Smucker's for supporting that unwatchable game show Minute to Win It, but that's just me). The baddies whom PTC wants you to avoid include Macy's, Yum! Brands' KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, Unilever's Axe, General Motors and Burger King for advertising during shows "that included harsh language, violence and sexual content." Quick question: Does this kind of stuff ever put any significant hurt on advertisers? Maybe in extreme cases it does, but I can't imagine those Verizon ads during Gossip Girl will turn away anyone who really wants a new BlackBerry Storm.

Cookie Monster issues plea to host 'SNL'

He couldn't possibly be any worse than January Jones, but it's still to be determined if Cookie Monster will host NBC's Saturday Night Live. So far, the sweets-loving muppet has gathered more than 100,000 people on Facebook to support his first bid to star on the long-running late-night series. Betty White didn't go about it this way—her fans got the ball rolling for her hosting gig, which won her an Emmy—but so what? Sesame Workshop, the parent company of Sesame Street, has proven to be a masterful manager of this media property, creating a steady stream of parody videos to keep up exposure for the characters. Now, the Facebook effort is quickly gaining steam, undoubtedly fueled by people like you and me (and not pre-schoolers in Monster jammies). Wonder what Lorne Michaels, who gets a shout-out in Cookie Monster's audition video here, thinks of all this?

The Great 'X-Files' Rewatch: season 1, episode 18, 'Shapes'

As soon as the opening sequence began, I had one of those déjà vu moments—I'd been somewhere as a 14-year-old kid (remember, it's now 1994), watching this with the old faithful crew. I'd like to say it was Dan's house. Possibly popcorn was served. 
  This is a much, much, much stronger episode than the previous one (see "Miracle Man") and takes on two subjects that have always fascinated me: a) Native Americans, and b) werewolves. I took a great Native American literature class during my senior year of college with a Lakota Sioux professor, Delphine Red Shirt, who I think is still teaching and writing somewhere out there (if you're wondering, I got an A). The cultural and social toll us white folk have taken on the Native American populations across the U.S. and Canada has been devastating, to say the least. Alcoholism, murder and poor education have run rampant on reservations for years—and it's basically all our fucking fault. I still remember what Ms. Red Shirt said when asked what the most important thing was to a Native American: "A good team of lawyers," she said stolidly. 
  So, in this episode, you get a helping of this Great Divide between the white man and the Native Americans, and you really feel bad for them. The reservation sheriff, played well by Michael Horse, has a few moments with Mulder and Scully about the cultural divide, which really gets you where it counts. Additionally, the nature of ritual takes center stage in the burial ceremony performed for recently dead Joseph Goodensnake, who is the focus of the X-file: Goodensnake was gunned down on a farm late at night, and the shooter claims before cutting him down that he was in the form of a hairy beast.

Oprah lavishes audience with VW Beetles

Not to be outdone by Adam Sandler, who gave Maseratis to his Grown Ups co-stars recently, Oprah ripped a page from her own playbook and doled out redesigned Volkswagen Beetles to her in-studio audience on Monday. Isn't this stunt getting a little old? Not if you're sitting in that room, it isn't. Predictable? Well, yes. But the queen of daytime talk only has a little time left on her syndicated show—she's leaving it to go run her own cable channel, not-so-curiously dubbed OWN, for the Oprah Winfrey Network. So, she's busting out the last of her famous "favorite things," of which she claims the Beetle is one. She "toodles" around town in her own model, she says. To the shrieking, crying, dancing and high-fiving of her fans, she passed out keys to 2012 models. They'll get the cars in May after a sneak peek (and blatant in-show ad) during Monday's episode. It compares pretty favorably—on the fan freak-out scale—to the Australian-trip giveaway at the beginning of the season. The question now is, whatever will marketers do without Oprah and her brand-centric largesse? Ellen, get ready for a lot more calls.

The Great 'X-Files' Rewatch: season 1, episode 17, 'Miracle Man'

OK, folks, we're getting close to the end of the first season, coming into Thanksgiving weekend. Up to bat is episode 17.1, "Mircale Man," which follows the story of an adopted son of an evangelical preacher in Tennessee who appears to have the power to heal—with his stigmata-ed hands. Is the boy the Second Coming, or is he just the Second Come-on? That is the question Agents Mulder and Scully must answer. Oh, and of course, as soon as they show up, the kid appears to start killing people, instead of healing them, with his touch.
  Now, as far as the rewatch goes, this was a bit of a clunker—though there were some good, solid, tense moments throughout and a decent performance by young Scott Bairstow as the son-healer Samuel Hartley. (I immediately recognized him and realized, after trolling through imdb.com, that he was on a real clunker of a show, Party of Five, with that godawful intro by that godawful '90s band the Bodeans. I want to say his turn on that show was as an abusive boyfriend to Neve Campbell's character, but I'm probably totally off base. On a side note: I used to watch Party of Five in high school, so as to talk to girls who were undoubtedly watching it for then-hot actors Scott Wolf and Matthew Fox, the latter of whom would go on to star in one of my favorite shows of all time, Lost. (Wolf had a decent role in movie Go.) I would sit through these awful episodes, memorize lines and then talk shop with the hot, popular girls in school. It never helped. I never got a date, but I did gain a crush on Jennifer Love "Your Body Is a Wonderland" Hewitt.) Anyhow, Bairstow says his lines with a maturity that you don't often see in young actors these days, and it's a shame the rest of the episode is so low grade, because it could've been his tour de force. 

Jimmy Fallon's best musical skit so far

Jimmy Fallon slow-jams the news with Brian Williams, rocks out with house band The Roots and killed with a TV-themed song medley at the Emmys. He's musical, see? But his duet with Bruce Springsteen last week on Late Night might've trumped all those. Doing his best Neil Young, Fallon gave Willow Smith's ridiculously catchy and completely inane pop hit "Whip My Hair" the folkie treatment, complete with guitar and harmonica embellishments. Best of all was the addition of guest Springsteen. How they held it together for three and a half pseudo-serious minutes, I'll never know. Take a gander to see how a ditty about good hair days and girl power (or am I overanalyzing here?) sounds when filtered through two rock icons—one fake and one real.

Flashbacks return to the top of the heap

Robin Sparkles has a dash of mallrat à la Tiffany, an '80s Boy George fashion sense and a pronounced Canadian accent. What's not to love? The character, a fan favorite from the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, popped up again on Monday night as the young pop-singing one-hit-wonder who grew into cynical TV news host Robin Scherbatsky. Her current-day posse, including leering ladies man Barney Stinson, unearthed a video of Robin as the star of an unintentionally (?) lewd fictional series called Space Teens. Alan Thicke made an appearance, as did Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, long division and a song about beavers. (If this sounds surreal, that's because it was.)
  The flashback, along with being a goofy high point for the series, hits the zeitgeist bull's-eye, according to a recent report from trend watcher the Intelligence Group. The firm, owned by talent agency CAA, tracks what's hot now and what's expected to sizzle in the future, particularly with advertiser-coveted millennials. A presentation at IG's recent Fall Trend School identified "blasts from the past" as a prominent entertainment trend, with the remake of Hawaii-Five-O providing one of the few hits of the new fall TV season and the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future making a lot of noise.
  The reasons are simple: There's comfort in the familiar, and Hollywood loves to play on our collective sense of nostalgia. (That new version of The Munsters is in the works!) Chances are HIMYM's Robin Sparkles will be back, and I'd support the cameo even if it didn't add much to the hit series. I'd rather see a flashback, where fans get some insight into an original character, than another remake of an '80s franchise. (Take your pick, it's being remade.) All indications are we'll have plenty of both.

The Great 'X-Files' Rewatch: season 1, episode 16, 'E.B.E.'

The opening sequence of "E.B.E." reminded me how eerily similar things are these days—at least government/war-wise—to the early '90s. That was the era of the first Gulf war—1990-91—the first time America really thought it was facing the threat of weapons of mass destruction since the Cold War (and subsequently, global terrorism, which came to a head two years later, when the World Trade Center was bombed the first time). I distinctly remember the nightly pictures of oil fields burning in the desert on the news—the Tom Brokaw broadcasts (love that guy) and the "Scud Stud," Arthur Kent, reporting from behind enemy lines. Of course, there was also the government led by Bush I, reassuring the public of our role as ally to the Middle East and the lofty goals for toppling Saddam Hussein (emphasis on the first syllable, of course, to make it sound like "Sodom"). And then, a bit after the hype had died down, the rumors of sick veterans and Gulf War Syndrome—and the subsequent coverup (well, that might be my X-Files-geek-conspiracy-theorist self speaking). Certainly, a lot to take in as a teenager.
  The "teaser" for the episode: An Iraqi fighter pilot radios in an unidentified flying object, experiences a blinding flash of white light, but is able to recover his systems and shoot the craft out of the sky. It lands near an American base. In rolls the X-Files theme. It struck me how ahead-of-the-times this tiny sequence was—how it felt like something the producers of 24 or Lost might have ginned up more than a decade later. This is "cinematic" television at its finest—before shows like Mad Men and The Walking Dead had even been glimmers of ideas.

The Great 'X-Files' Rewatch: season 1, episode 15, 'Young at Heart'

First off, forgive the long absence of the GXFR. I moved and had no Internet for a while. But I'm back on track, so I can stream the full X-Files series once again via Netflix!
  Episode 15 of the first season of The X-Files series is called "Young at Heart"—somewhat erroneously, maybe. The "fountain of youth" theme really doesn't kick in until the end of episode. And it feels like a bit of a letdown when it does.
  It's another story stripped from Mulder's past (remember, "Fire" brought in a short-haired British chanteuse whom he'd been bedding in college). This one hits a little closer to home for Mulder, though. Having a clear shot at a murder suspect early in his career, a young Agent Mulder "plays it by the book" and doesn't off the suspect because there's a hostage involved. (Apparently, in the FBI handbook, you can't put a hostage's life in danger, if he/she is at gunpoint.) The suspect, John Barnett, then shoots the hostage and one of Mulder's fellow agents before being taken into custody—something for which Mulder has never forgiven himself.
  Barnett avoids the death penalty and is thrown in jail for life—and supposedly dies there of heart failure. But given the opening "teaser" sequence of the episode, the audience knows Barnett is still alive in some way (this isn't revealed until much later). We see him on a gurney, missing an arm, with a doctor above him, his cataract-covered eyes still blinking. Creepy shit.