Holy crap, there was a lot going on on TV last night. Not only were people all a-Twitter about the NCAA tournament and the health care reform debate, but there was some absolutely amazing cable programming as well. Such as:
LIFE (Discovery) — I got goosebumps just watching the teaser intro before it started (see video below). Just hours and hours of high-definition animals in slow-motion; I often found myself with my jaw agape. My only suggestion for improvement: Oprah out as narrator, Sam Elliott in.
BREAKING BAD (AMC) — Depending on who you trust at Ownage du Cinema, the season premiere was either a disappointment that “lacked the sense of relentless forward motion which so characterized the first two seasons” or OWNAGE that provided “VALUABLE LIFE LESSONS IN THE REALM OF OWNAGE.” Regardless, everyone should be able to agree that there’s no denying the power of the final scene.
THE PACIFIC (HBO) — I am no longer qualified to write about this with any pretense of objectivity. Watching a recreation of John Basilone’s heroics that won him the Medal of Honor — an act that has grown from history to legend to religious event in Marine Corps lore — was, for me, like a devout Christian watching The Passion of the Christ: it doesn’t matter what details are changed for dramatic effect, because any critical judgment is overpowered by the emotion from actually seeing an event that lived only in your mind for so long. I have no idea if this show works for anyone who didn’t serve in the Marines, and frankly I don’t really care. It works for me, and that’s good enough.
Guhhhhhhhh. Cable networks are interested in buying Sarah Palin’s proposed reality show, tentatively named “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Said one insider: “It will sell. One way or another.”
Sources say A&E Networks and Discovery Communications want to acquire Palin’s project, which focuses on the ex-governor giving a guided tour of her native Alaska — visiting fishing boats, taking a trip to a gold mine, to cite a couple examples…
A&E Networks hasn’t officially put in a bid for the project, but sources indicate that the company is interested in the project for several of its brands — A&E, History or Lifetime.
Discovery Communications is likewise vying for the project for one or more of its outlets, such as TLC. Some sources say the flagship Discovery Channel is no longer in play, while others say otherwise.
Palin is asking for between $1 million and $1.5 million per episode, a hefty amount for a first-year cable series. [THR]
Eh, put her on TLC with all the dwarves and super-sized families. She’ll fit right in with the channel’s theme of “21st century freak show.” They could even put her in a cage that says “Inexplicable Political Phenomenon” or “Eerily Lifelike Talking Points Robot.” As long as she’s in a cage, that’s the important part.
It’s a rainy Friday in New York, and I’ve quit work early to venture into Manhattan to get a few minutes of face time with “Man vs. Wild’s” Bear Grylls, who’s speaking with real journalists and even a few lowly bloggers to promote Fan vs. Wild, a competition sponsored by Degree in which four supposedly “lucky” fans compete in wilderness challenges, with the winner appearing in a special episode of “Man vs. Wild” next fall.
After an initial spiel in which Grylls enthusiastically describes the details of the promotion — a relationship that dates back to the Sure/Degree commercial he did after climbing Everest, the ad that got him noticed by Discovery Channel — we rotate through for one-on-one interviews. He greets me warmly, his climbers’ forearms bulging with veins. Even at the end of winter, he is tan. I feel unattractive.
A new season of “Man Vs. Wild” debuts tomorrow night, and Bear Grylls GIVES HIMSELF AN ENEMA WITH BIRD GUANO. I remember Bear talking about this on Conan, but I didn’t realize that Discovery was actually going to show it. The video is below, and it’ll make you wish you were deserted on a raft in the Pacific with nothing but a canteen and a length of tubing. And realize: it’s only a matter of time until this is in 3-D. I just hope Discovery holds off on Smellovision.
A joint venture between Discovery Communications, Sony, and Imax will lead to the creation of a 3-D channel, according to industry insiders. The channel, expected to be announced sometime today, would launch in 2011.
Discovery Communications, which operates the Discovery Channel, TLC and other cable channels, will distribute the channel… It is expected to showcase a mix of 3-D content, including entertainment and sports. It will also show some of the natural history programming that Discovery is well known for…
Companies like Discovery, Imax, Sony, and the Walt Disney Company, which controls ESPN, are trying to place themselves at the forefront of an emerging technology, much as media companies did in the HDTV arms race. 3-D televisions may not be mainstream for many years, but “every TV manufacturer is putting on a 3-D push,” Jason Oxman, a spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC. [NYT Media Decoder]
I like new technology just as much as the next blogger with an iPhone, but I’ve never been all that enamored with 3-D. It’s never the wonderful “immersive” experience it claims to be, and as a rule I’m not impressed by anything that was cool in the 1950s. Except accusing people of being communists.
Joshua Warner, a former deckhand on “Deadliest Catch,” was arrested in Illinois on suspicion of three bank robberies in Eugene, Oregon. In a related story, whoa! People still successfully rob banks?
Eugene police say he is the same Josh Warner who appeared as a greenhorn deckhand on the Alaskan king crab fishing boat Wizard in the Discovery Channel show “Deadliest Catch.” His actions and confrontations with deckhands and the captain made him well known to the show’s followers…
Prior to fishing in Alaska, Warner was a Dungeness crab fisherman on the Oregon coast and a wildland firefighter. [CBS 13]
I don’t condone bank robbery — I’m more of a liquor store man — but I have to admit, that’s a helluva resume for picking up dangerous women. “What do you do?” “I’m a crab fisherman, wildland firefighter, and bank robber. But my real passion is anonymous sex in public.”
