Thursday, July 7, 2016

THEY PADDED THEIR CUPS, BUT I SCREWED THE JUDGES:  Time to supplement our NBC Hairspray Live cast list: in addition to Harvey Fierstein, Marty Short, Derek Hough, and Jennifer Hudson in (the roles you'd cast them in if you were casting Hairspray, even though J-Hud's probably too young for hers), Kristin Chenoweth and Arianna Grande are in as ... oh, come on, that's just perfect casting, plus previously-unknown (yay!) Maddie Biallio as Tracy Turnblad, and she has pipes.
WHATCHU GONNA DO:  It's the 20th anniversary of Hulk Hogan's big heel turn (no, not when he teamed up with Peter Thiel).

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

I'LL TAKE THE PHYSICAL CHALLENGE:  Marc Summers will host a special edition of Double Dare live from Comic-Con in honor of the show's 30th Anniversary.  My goal was always to get on the show and then clean up simply by answering every question correctly rather than deal with any of the stunts.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

GO, DADDIO:  Previously.tv ranks NBC's other sitcom efforts on Must See TV Thursdays, because keeping Mark Feuerstein gainfully employed is a critical national goal.

Monday, July 4, 2016

IN CONGRESS JULY 4, 1776: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

[First, a complaint: TCM's not airing 1776 until 1am on July 5. That's balderdash.]

[See, related, Isaac Spaceman's "A Word From Your Editor" (July 4, 2008) here. In the meantime, enjoy "The Lees of Old Virginia" as performed by the My Little Pony troupe, and read John Adams' letter to Abigail Adams of July 3, 1776 ("It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.")]

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.