In Case You Missed It: Cell Phone Turns 40

If there was a phone in one of these, they've obviously
 been around a while!

Last week, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito lamented that same-sex marriage as a concept is very new and ooga-booga scary because it is a new concept, younger than the internet and cell phones! Well, news flash to Mr. Alito, but the internet was born (with Al Gore's help, natch) in the late 1970s, and the cell phone has just turned forty.

I remember watching Charlie's Angels in 1976, and marveling that the Angels had phones in their cars. Of course they looked like the handsets to an old fashioned desk phone, coiled cord and all, and they were rooted to the cars. Kate Jackson may have had the only Ford Pinto with a car phone in it! But by the early eighties you started to see mobile phones pop up here and there, outside of television. My step dad had a "phone in a bag" some time in the late 80s or so. it basically resided in a duffel bag, and the whole works weighed as much as a bowling ball bag.

All of the phones I've owned. So far.

I still never had my own until early 1995. And it was kind of funny, because at the time I was still a skinny little dude, and they gave me an 80s-style Motorola Dyna-Tek brick phone. It was as large as a telephone lineman's handset, and looked ridiculous hanging off of my belt. They were so heavy and clunky, you always wanted to set them down. My boss did--on the hood of his car--and it went flying off on the freeway!

After that job went away, I didn't have a phone again for another seven or eight years. When we finally decided to enter the info age, we opted for early 2000s silver Samsung flip phones. This was 2004, so there really wasn't such a thing as "smart phones." There were PDA phones, like BlackBerry, but that just seemed like overkill. The flip phones had rudimentary cameras, and some limited apps, so it was a nice introduction. We replaced them two years later with (slightly) more advanced black flip phones. The cameras were (slightly) better, and already the design had changed pretty dramatically. But they were still dumb phones.

We dipped our toes into more advanced tech with the Samsung Rant, with a slider keyboard (for much easier texting), but we were already falling way behind the curve. This was 2008, and the iPhone's first models were already out, and its competitors were coming online. So, when our contracts were up, we went for actual smart phones. The first try lasted three weeks: a low-to-medium end Samsung Transform, a decision that turned out to be obviously a mistake. So, we replaced that with the Samsung Epic 4G, which was awesome. For a little while! Though it was a flagship, it was toward the end of its life cycle at the time, and was quickly surpassed by newer models. My phone got crushed though (oops), and after much back-and-forth, it was ultimately replaced with an HTC Evo 4G, equally old, no keyboard, and seemingly better.

The future! Eenie, meenie, miney, moe!

mid-range Samsung Transform. It was good enough to spark our interest, but slow enough to be

But, ah, it's re-up time again. I'm eligible, and The Other Half will be soon. His phone had to be replaced with a used one, due to a nasty fall on the tile, but with another Epic. And lately, both of our replacement phones have been restarting themselves, and getting twitchy. So, we wait breathlessly (I do, anyway) to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One, to see which one we like. And all of this is so goofy when you consider how long we went without mobile phones. Funny thing though, those 11 days when my phone was out of commission were torture. And I don't even like to talk on the phone! Such first-world problems, eh?

[Excerpt]

Can you hear me now? Cellphone turns 40

Forty years ago, Martin Cooper, a VP at Motorola, made history by placing the very first cellphone call. Appropriately enough, he called his rival at AT&T's Bell Labs. . .

Read more at: NBC News

Fall TV Season: Charlie's Angels Looks. . .Bad

The original and true Charlie's Angels

I'm a big fan of cheesy 70s TV shows, especially the ABC "jiggle" era, since it was the beginning of my pop-culture awareness. I was 10 in 1976, which is about the time I started buying 45 records, and cluing in to Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, ABBA, and Charlie's Angels. There is something special about the era, and the products of that era that can't be recaptured for people who weren't there (though the brilliant-but-cancelled Swingtown came close).

Charlie's Angels, the original TV show, wasn't by today's standards a great show. There was a looseness and a languidness about 70s TV dramas. Today's dramas probably have two to three times as much script as they had in those days. And you can't say the acting was terrific (though Kate Jackson was a pro), but it was serviceable, and better than it had any right to be. What the original Charlie's Angels had was an intangible but obivous magic. It captured lightning in a bottle, with a cast that clicked spectacularly, and an energy that is undeniable. When Farrah Fawcett left the show (after one short season) in a tragic contract dispute, they captured the lightning again, amazingly enough, with the casting of Cheryl Ladd as Fawcett's character's sister. It should have failed. The writers didn't even try to be clever with that one, but Ladd fit right in as if nothing ever happened.  Jackson still crackled with her "smart one" routine, and Jacklyn Smith's "streetwise" character got fleshed out more. It was all going great.

The later, fake Charlie's Angels

But when Jackson left, the show became a shadow of its former self. Neither Shelley Hack nor Tanya Roberts clicked at all, and the show sputtered out after five years. After that, there were abortive attempts at a TV reboot, and then two feature films featuring Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz. The movies were successful commercially, but not critically. That in itself isn't any different from the TV show, which never got critical respect.  But the movies had little to do with the series beyond the setup, and an attempt at continuity with the original (Smith appeared in part two). I never really understood how there could be three Bosleys (David Doyle, Bill Murray and  Bernie Mac) in that continuity, but whatever.

The biggest problem was, the movie Charlie's Angels made the girls into superheroes, sort of a trio of kick ass James Bonds. In fact, the movies seemed to be a blend of 007 and The Matrix. The 70s series was just a group of very pretty women who used to be cops, who were now private investigators. They weren't gifted karate pros, or supernaturally spritely waif-fu experts. I'd hoped, when I heard that the show was being rebooted, that they'd take it back to its roots, but spruce it up with modern storytelling. Looks like they went the movie route. Pity. It looks like it's going to suck. It looks like it will follow Bionic Woman, Knight Rider and V into the remake abyss.

Blast from the Past: Workplace TV Shows

The workplace is a big setting for TV series, vying for the top spot with family dramas and comedies. But the workplaces aren't very varied. There are cop shows, lawyer shows, medical shows (with a subset of forensics), and procedurals like CSI or Law & Order that may have a blend of those settings.  I don't know about you, but I've never worked for a law firm, police department or hospital. There are other occupations out there, Hollywood! Sure, my job as an artist in a Las Vegas sign company would make a damned boring drama, but I'll bet it could be a comedy or reality show!

Anyway, sometimes the networks get away from their comfort zone, and actually set a program in a different sort of workplace from every other show on the tube. Here are a few off the top of my head. . .





1. Flying High (1978) - Before she was on The Greatest American Hero and Hotel, Connie Selleca (Mrs. John Tesh) was on this series, set at an airline. It didn't last long.

2. Alice (1976) - Lasting much longer was this television version of the movie, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Linda Lavin was the waitress at Mel's Diner, and couldn't get out of the joint for eleven years.

3. It's a Living/Making a Living (1980) - Another comedy set in a restaurant, but this one a posh eatery at the top of a skyscraper, with gorgeous waitresses. Sexist as hell, but what a catchy theme song!

4. 9 to 5 (1983) - The movie spawned a series that couldn't decide what it wanted to be. There were three or four variations, but they were all set at an office. . .before The Office. Starred Dolly Parton's sister and Rita Moreno.

5. Scarecrow & Mrs. King (1983) - After leaving her private eye/jiggle show, Charlie's Angels, Kate Jackson landed in this successful spy drama. It was set at a film company that was a front for a government agency, like the CIA. But plenty of workplace dramedy went down there.

6. WKRP in Cincinnati (1978) - One of the best workplace sitcoms ever took place at a little AM radio station in Ohio. Nearly every episode is a classic. Howard Hessman's Dr. Johnny Fever was a highlight, but every other cast member had their chance to shine. Nearly equalled in the nineties by Newsradio, for a radio studio-set sitcom.

That's it for this weekend. Have a great week!

Frivolity Break: Charlie's Angels Returning to TV?

Image from source, Variety

Revivals of TV shows are a really mixed bag. But I get excited for new treatments of old favorites every time. Occasionally you get a Star Trek: The Next Generation, which improves upon and expands the franchise. Other times, you get a complete reboot like V, which takes a similar storyline and updates it to great effect (though the long-term success of this one isn't yet known). Most often, you get a boring reboot, like The Bionic Woman or a craptastic sequel like Knight Rider.

Charlie's Angels could go any of those routes. The original--a crime show with three gorgeous female detectives--is light and fluffy, but had a special something that gives me nostalgic, heart-warming happy thoughts. It also had an established habit of replacing "Angels" almost yearly (starting with Farrah Fawcett-Majors abruptly quitting when she got famous). So a new cast totally makes sense, and could be presented as though this is a continuation.

The two movies went that route, but cheated by turning the concept into a wild, action-packed hyper reality, with stunts right out of James Bond movies. Sure, John Forsythe was still doing Charlie's voice, and Jaclyn Smith finally turned up. But the movie Angels bore little similarity to the original three (or even the next three). They'd be better off, both budget wise and storytelling wise to go back to something like the original concept. They'd of course have to update the wardrobe and cars (no Ford Pintos!). They'd need much more intricate plots (which were along the lines of Scooby Doo Mysteries) and pacing (meandering as they did in the 70s).

The key to doing it right is not just hiring three hot chicks. They need a second dose of lightning in a bottle here. The original cast, Fawcett, Smith and Kate Jackson, had amazing chemistry in addition to being pretty. Jackson's Sabrina was brainy, Smith's Kelly was street-smart, Fawcett's Jill was athletic and charming. They had a nice mixture of mystery, humor and of course a dash of sexiness. But for all the "jiggle TV" reputation they garnered, the show also had an air of innocence about it. I'm not sure how easy it would be to recapture that.

The original show managed to integrate Cheryl Ladd in as Kris, Jill's sister, without losing that chemistry. But by the time Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts came around, something was gone (I'm suspecting that Kate Jackson was the glue that held this show together).

[Excerpt]

ABC closing in on 'Charlie's Angels'

ABC is close to giving a pilot order to a modern version of the classic 1970s TV actioner "Charlie’s Angels."

Josh Friedman, who recently adapted the "Terminator" franchise for his Fox series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," is onboard to write and exec produce the new "Angels. . ."

Read more at: Variety

Mini DVD Review: Charlie's Angels The Movies

Image from source, Wikipedia

The past few weeks, having depleted my Joss Whedon DVDs (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) I have been watching season one of Charlie's Angels. I was inspired to buy the box set by Farrah Fawcett's Farrah's Story documentary. Since that time, Farrah has regrettably become an actual angel, and I've enjoyed (very much) watching her in her prime.

Charlie's Angels was criticised in its day for being "jiggle TV." The Moral Majority® crusaders heaped much abuse upon what is now seen as fairly tame. The show promised much more than it delivered when it comes to titillation. What it did provide is a nice little enjoyable 70s detective show, which while completely unbelievable, was also very entertaining. And the three stars, Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, managed to make the show something more than the sum of its parts. Shortly after buying the box set, I found the movie versions, both at steep discounts. So, I bought them.

When they made the movies based on the series, they missed the mark entirely. OK, maybe not entirely. Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz did have something of the same chemistry and camaraderie as the original three. But the feel of the show, the very premise, was discarded. John Forsythe was still there, amazingly still able to pull the gravitas at his very advanced age, to be believable as their never-seen boss. There were two Bosleys, Bill Murray--apparently the same character as the late David Doyle--and Bernie Mac, as Murray's adoptive brother.

But the movie version was vastly different in concept. In McG's Charlie's Angels, the girls were like elite special forces operatives, akin to James Bond or Tom Cruise's character in Mission Impossible. Gone were the ordinary human women who would alternatively kick butt and become damsels in distress. The movie Angels were able to defy the laws of physics, while fighting crime on an international and almost supernatural scale.

There isn't a thing in the movie versions of Charlie's Angels that can be believed as "real world." Your suspension of disbelief must be put on absolute ignore. That said, both Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle are still a hoot. The girls have such enthusiasm, and are so entertaining, that I can't outright condemn their efforts. And major kudos to scoring a cameo by Smith, in character as original angel Kelly Garrett. The show and the movies may have very little in common, but the acknowledgement of what came before was appreciated.

And a little trivia: as unlikely as it might seem, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle was the very first Blu-ray disc issued. And Smith was the only TV angel to appear in every episode of the series, not to mention one out of two of the movies.

My ratings:

Charlie's Angels Season One: Highly Recommended (if you like 70s TV)

Charlie's Angels the movie: Recommended

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle: If you liked part one, Recommended. If not, no.

Farrah Fawcett Has Died at 62

Image from source, MSNBC

At work, no time to write. Very sad. More later.

More at MSNBC: Farrah Fawcett succumbs to cancer at 62

Blast from the Past: Tim Curry I Do the Rock

While writing about Charlie's Angels, earlier, I remembered a fantastic song by Tim Curry, star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In his song "I Do the Rock," he mentions the stars of the show, and it has always been one of my favorite songs. They used to play this at the theater before The Rocky Horror Picture Show. So here you go. . .



Lyrics:

Edith Sitwell giving readings
14 Moscow Road
Osbert's giving champagne parties
Sachie's got a cold
Gertrude's hanging pictures
Alice making tea
Me, I do the only thing that still makes sense to me
I Do the RockI Do the Rock Rock
John and Yoko farming beef
Raising protein quota
Sometimes they make love and art
Inside the Coda
Rodney's feeling sexy
Mick is really frightfully bold
Me, I do the only thing that stops me growing old
I Do the RockI Do the Rock RockI Do the Rock Rock Rock
It's stimulating
Solzhenitzin feels exposed
Built a barbed-wire prison
Nietzsche's six feet under
But his babies' still got rhythm
Einstein's celebrating ten decades
But I'm afraid philosophy is just too much responsibility for me
I Do the RockI Do the Rock
Baby Ruth and Dizzy Dean
Best and Colin Cowdrey
Little Mo, Virginia Wade
Pistol Pete and O.J.
I've always liked Di Maggio
And Rockne's pretty Knute you know
I could never whack a ball with such velocity
I Do the RockI Do the RockI Do the Rock
It's stimulatingI'm a keen student
Liz and Dick and Britt and Liza
Jaclyn, Kate and Farrah
Meg and Roddy, John Travolta
Governor Brown and Linda
Interview and People Magazine
Miss Rona and the Queen
It must be really frightful to attract publicity
I Do the Rock
Myself
Carter, Begin and Sadat
Brezhnev, Teng and Castro
Everyday negotiate us closer to disastro
Idi Amin and the ShahAnd Al Fatah is quite Bizarre
I could never get the hang of ideology
I Do the RockI Do the RockI Do the Rock
Sunshine

Weekend Frivolity: Jaclyn, Kate and Farrah

Image from BittenAndBound

I'm enjoying my second weekend of Charlie's Angels season one. And I'm struck by the fact that all of the original angels have had cancer scares. It seems profoundly unfair, and statistically unlikely that all of them had to deal with that. Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson both had breast cancer (years ago), and seem to have come through it. Farrah Fawcett (Majors) has had worse luck, as the NBC documentary has shown us all. I'll continue to hope for a miracle for her, as she seems to be a very nice and sweet person. Not that anyone deserves a horrible disease, mind you.

The first season DVDs are far more enjoyable than you'd think. Sure, it's a silly 70s crime series, with all of the "TV tropes" cliches. But the girls had an undeniable chemistry. And the show is more than the sum of its parts. Aside from the fun "hey, I know them!" celebrity sightings (like Kim Basinger, Richard Mulligan, Tom Selleck and more), we find a group of actors who can rise above their material. Farrah can be coy and fun. Jaclyn exudes a knowing quality. Kate seems smart and perky no matter what she's doing. And even David Doyle as Bosley comes across as a very competent overseer to the girls. As dumb as the show is on the surface, there's a lot going on here. Only John Forsythe's Charlie seems irredeemable. The girls' comments to him seem like gentle-hearted pity.

Farrah Fawcett only got her proper credit as an actress after The Burning Bed, and Extremities. But all of the original Angels rose above their material. For all of the hair flipping and contrivances, they all come off as natural and realistic. I can only hope that the other angels (Shelley Hack, Cheryl Ladd and Tanya Roberts) have had better luck, health-wise.