Results tagged “discovery”

LAist had a chance to talk to Edward Michael Grylls, more commonly known as Bear Grylls, a former British Special Forces commando is best known in the states for his "Man vs. Wild" on the Discovery Channel. Have you seen those bizarre Dos Equis commercials with the Most Interesting Man in the World? Well, Bear Grylls has been recruited by Dos Equis to be a Distinguished Instructor in the Most Interesting Academy, specializing in Surviving in the Modern World. It's a schtick to be sure, but it's such a bizarre schtick it's interesting, and the videos and material collected at "the Academy" are put together in such a clever and amusing way, they are worth a deeper look than what we saw when Grylls paraded them on Letterman a couple weeks ago.

Starting today, the Paley Center will be showing rare and vintage footage of Michael Jackson from TV shows dating back to 1971. We're talking episodes of "The Tonight Show", "The Flip Wilson Show", and the Jackson Five's own show "The Jacksons". Check out the Paley website for dates and times.

Hardcore classic film geeks (ourselves included) now have a place to go as Turner Classic Movies aka TCM has launched a fan site that includes social networking doo-dads, video clips, and rare photos. --- Fans of "The Shield" will be eagerly anticipating the next effort from series creator Shawn Ryan, an hour-long comedic private investigator series called "Terriers" co-penned by "Ocean's Eleven" writer Ted Griffin. The pilot has been green-lighted/lit? by FX but no word on air date.

Thank you for the comments on yesterday's column - looks like Conan has created a winner with the new "Tonight Show".

Today we sadly note the passing of the always hilarious Dom DeLuise, who died at age 75 in Santa Monica last night. DeLuise was primarily known for his roles in movies like the Cannonball Run franchise with Burt Reynolds, as well as several of Mel Brooks' fillms, particularly Blazing Saddles and History of the World Part I. DeLuise actually got his start in TV on staples like "The Munsters"

Keith Olbermann wants to take up Sean Hannity on an offer to undergo waterboarding - Obermann is offering $1000 for every second Hannity undergoes the procedure. It's time to man up Sean.

The AP has an interesting story today on local newscasters trimming their staff despite reports stating that local news is becoming a ratings leader compared to national news broadcasts. Having technology that allows only 1 or 2 people to go to a location shoot should mean more coverage, because that's what people want, not the same amount of coverage with less people.

The TV Junkie Plan: "Better Off Ted", "Lost" (maybe), "MythBusters" (if not "Lost"), "South Park", "Reno 911!", Letterman, Fallon.

The TV Junkie Plan: "Parks and Recreation", "The Office", "30 Rock", "Fine Cut: KCET's Festival of Student Film", "The Daily Show", Leno, Ferguson

The TV Junkie Plan: "Better Off Ted", "Lost", "South Park", "Reno 911!", Leno, Fallon

The TV Junkie Plan: "Deadliest Catch", "Out of the Wild", "Modern Toss", Letterman, Fallon.

As part of Discovery Channel's "Alaska Week" of programming, tonight at 9pm is the season premiere of "Deadliest Catch" and over the past four seasons we've seen some incredible sights as these brave men harvest the King and Snow crab we, in the lower 48, love to nosh on while sitting in our warm, safe, and cozy restaurants and houses. To say that these guys have a dangerous workplace is an understatement - every season of the show has included footage of injuries as they happen as well as reports of other vessels sinking with men losing their lives in the frigid waters near Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

The Discovery Channel has put together a ton of programming it has dubbed "Alaska Week" and it begins tonight at 9pm with "Arctic Roughnecks". Tomorrow will feature the season premiere of "Deadliest Catch" and we will have an interview with Captain Keith of the Wizard for you!

We know it's a couple days away but we couldn't help talk up this Thursday night's NBC lineup: "The Office" will be back with 2 brand new episodes at 8pm and 9pm with the series premiere of Amy Poehler's highly anticipated "Parks and Recreation" sandwiched in between the two at 8:30pm. Check out the website of Pawnee, Indiana, the location of "Parks and Recreation" and of course the video snippets.

Tonight's season finale of "Damages" promises to be a nail-biter - we know where we'll be at 10pm. As it approaches, we wonder how there could possibly a third season after this, but that's the result of great writing. Unfortunately it's conflicting with the season premiere of "Reno 911!" but we take solace in the fact that it airs again later, because we're cheap that way.

Last week NPR did a segment on tonight's "Nova" which even sounded cool - check out the photos, the video footage will be even more amazing, if not terrifying, as we have more proof of climate change (PBS @ 8pm).

CNBC's host of "Mad Money", Jim Cramer, will appear on "The Daily Show" tonight to finally have it out face-to-face with Jon Stewart, who castigated the network for a skewed perspective that was harsh on President Obama's stimulus plan but soft on CEOs. Stewart has also pointed out specific stock recommendations made by Cramer last year that were wildly misinformed at best, if not downright criminally negligent.

If you thought that the local news was boring claptrap that only idiots watch, then you are outside of the ever-increasing popularity of the local newscast - Nielsen is reporting a 20% year-over-year increase in viewership. For TV, a fractional percentage change is big news but 20% is incredible.

Jerry Seinfeld will be returning to TV as the producer and creator of "The Marriage Ref", a new series for NBC. No premiere date or time slot has been selected.

We have a host of finales tonight but the ones to keep an eye on are Timothy Hutton's "Leverage" (10pm on TNT, pictured right) and John Lehr's "10 Items or Less" (11pm on USA). Of local note, KNBC will be doing a special at 9pm on their historical 60 years of broadcasting in Los Angeles. KNBC helped define the medium of television and is due many accolades for it's services to the community over these 6 decades.

Our friend Michael Ian Black and his fellow "The State" colleague, Michael Showalter, will finally again be gracing the airways on a new Comedy Central show this summer called "Michael and Michael Have Issues". The first of seven episodes will premiere in July and we can't wait for them [hint, get us screeners or even have us visit the set].

Today AMC launched the beginning of a series of webisodes for its excellent series, "Breaking Bad", in advance of its new season starting on March 8th.

We love Amy Sedaris and we love the fact that we can see her on something other than just a few minutes with David Letterman - this time as a somewhat wacky psychic on "The Closer" tonight @ 9:00pm on TNT.

While we still don't believe that Joaquin Phoenix's schtick on Letterman last night isn't anything other than a stunt, it doesn't mean that show's like "Late Night" need to go along with it. Do the producers of his latest movie, we don't even remember what it's called, think that this has helped them? What's your take - is Phoenix faking or tripping?

Did any of you watch the Grammys? Did you enjoy it? OK, so you might actually like pop music but tell us what you specifically like about it. To us, the performances seem somewhat off and the staging heavy-handed. There was a 17% increase in viewership of the Grammys this year over last year with most folks watching during the 8:30-9:30pm hour.

More post-Super Bowl hype: Nielsen says 95 million watched, NBC says 148 million watched, and Tuscon Comcast subscribers got 30 seconds of porn during the Super Bowl (that's so wrong in so many ways, if you're going to prank me with porn, you'd better provide more than 30 seconds of it).

NBC made sold $260 million worth of ads for yesterday's Super Bowl - forgetting the movie trailers (GI Joe?), what was your favorite ad?

Anyone else watch programming on ABC.com? Get ready for more commercials on that web property as their research has shown that they can pump a lot more commercials at viewers than they thought they could. You gotta love the attitude of one of the members of the National Association of Television Program Executives, a panel that is supportive of the research findings: "The key is what is that very fine line and balance before we push them (the audience) over the edge of being pissed."

Looks like the national executive director of the Screen Actors Guild, Doug Allen, has had to step down because of the strike, or lack thereof, and a deal with producers, or lack thereof.

For those of you that watched the 2-hour premiere of "Lost" last night, are you enjoying that old familiar feeling of not knowing what the hell is going on?