From the great first season of The Bernie Mac Show, written by Larry Wilmore.

Very sad news. Mac had the ability to send an audience into hysterics while barely moving. A huge comedy presence who should have been around a lot longer.

I thought I’d take a break from my post-Comic-Con recovery/busyiness/movie-backlog break to let you know that TCM is having a daylong Michael Caine tribute. You can probably pop you’re head in at any time and see something fairly interesting, but I definitely recommend both Alfie and Zulu in the strongest terms, for entirely different reasons. (Despite being from Mike Hodges, the great director of both Get Carter and Croupier, I can’t recommend the final in the series, however. I was unable to get through more than half of Pulp. A misfired comedy, even a misfired intelligent comedy, can be the most painful thing ever.)

And, just in case anyone missed it, it’s never too late to catch up with recent Caine fixation and tribute, as well as the related Bullz-eye.com bio.

And, just because I dig it, here’s my favorite of the video selections from the Caine bio, an early music video for musician Roy Budd and his great Get Carter theme, featuring footage from one of the best credit sequences of its day.

If you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to here at Comic-Con, I’ve spent a good chunk of that time over the last thirty six hours covering a few panels for Premium Hollywood, all TV related. To be specific….

• I uncover the anti-buzz surround the new J.J. Abrams TV show, Fringe;
• For my fellow Whedon-heads, I chronicle the Dollhouse panel;
• And, for lovers of mirth and mayhem (even if the TV show hasn’t been as mirthful as it could be this year), it’s 2008’s mandatory panel for The Simpsons.

The universe owes me a really good Manhattan.

“The ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization.” — Dick Cheney

“In my view, the Reagan administration’s support and collaboration with it is equally immoral, evil, and totally un-Christian. . . . You are either for or against apartheid and not by rhetoric. You are either in favor of evil or you are in favor of good. You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can’t be neutral.” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu

There’s also some heartwarming footage of Mr. Mandela’s birthday here.

My Bullz-Eye colleague and sometime editor Will Harris has been filing a series of fascinating dispatches over at Premium Hollywood — and I say this without any fear of perceived bloggy brownnosing, in that not only is he doing it very well, but he’s covering subjects that are near and dear to your faithful proprietor’s heart (and those of a few of our regular readers).

Anyhow, the event Will is covering is the huge dog-and-pony show that is the annual meeting of the TCA, which I assume stands for “Television Critics Association.” These are some major league canines and equestrians.

What follows is a cherry picked selection of the FtY-esque highlights, going backwards in time….

* TCA Press Tour, Day 6: PBS, Pt. 2 — Some interesting comments on comedy and the passing of George Carlin and a lot more from Richard Lewis, Larry Wilmore (The Daily Show’s brilliant, deadpan “Senior Black Correspondent” and the man behind the great first season of The Bernie Mac Show), and original SNL writer Anne Beatts.

*  TCA Press Tour, Day 6: PBS, Pt. 1 — Just interesting stuff relating to God and the fact that Nobel winning physicist has a son whose a well-known, critically respected alternative rocker with a really uncomfortable looking neck beard. Also, the scoop on an upcoming version of an old favorite of mine involving sword play, unrequited love, and a very large nose, starring Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner.

TCA Press Tour, Day 5: PBS, Pt. 2 — An upcoming documentary on the history of probably my favorite single movie studio (though, obviously, RKO has a big place in my heart as well, and MGM’s Freed unit, too….). Cool that Joan Leslie was included in the discussion and some interesting stories from Frank Darabont and Richard Donner — I have mixed feelings about both of them as filmmakers, but still very much worth reading. (For that matter, I have even more mixed feelings about the documentarian behind this — Richard Schickel. But that’s a gigantic blog post for another day.)

That’s followed by some comments on the ranting of former Black Panther and cookbook writer Bobby Seale, but my favorite part of this post has to do with Will’s encounter with actor David Hyde Pierce and an upcoming PBS documentary on Alzheimer’s disease. If you’ve got relatives dealing with Alzheimer’s or dementia, you’ll want to read the last section of this post.

TCA Press Tour, Day 5: PBS, Pt. 1 — The burning question of the day — will Ian McKellan’s upcoming Lear feature the Shakespearian full Monty? Inquiring minds, etc. But forget McKellan’s nudity, some words with Beatles producer George Martin, probably one of the ten most important people in pop music history. A must for Beatlemaniacs. You know who you are.

TCA Press Tour, Day 4: Cartoon Network — If the words “Clone Wars” set your heart racing, this one’s for you.

TCA Press Tour, Day 4: CNN — Beauteous CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien meets bespectacled alpha-bassist and Seussian p-funk force-of-nature Bootsy Collins. The topic: Presidential politics, what else?

TCA Press Tour, Day 3: HBO - Some interesting tidbits about upcoming shows, but the real attraction is a meeting with Ricky Gervais discussing his stand-up routine and the possibility of more Extras (which I haven’t blogged about that I can remember, but which I really love). Also, this blog has at least one fairly regular reader whose a fan of Little Britain starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams, and he will find something of interest here as well. And, from there we go to Generation Kill and the new show from Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), with a premise that sounds very much like a pacifist variation on Buffy.

TCA Press Tour, Day 3: Sundance Channel — And here’s the big one, folks. Someone I work with and may eventually meet, has quite a tale to tell involving himself and my personal all-time favorite musical person (whose still living, anyhow) and who is flogging a very interesting sounding new show interview/music program on Sundance. This is a very big deal (to me, anyway).

TCA Press Tour, Day 2: AMC — A fascinating discussion of probably my favorite show of the last few years, Mad Men (and that’s saying something considering that I say that after two mostly great seasons of Dexter), including some touching thoughts from Robert Morse and a cameo from comedy and advertising legend, Stan Freberg.

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And there’s much more good stuff before and after those posts as this TCA business goes on for several more days still. Stay tuned.  And now, some words from our sponsor.

Thank you, Mr. Freberg

 

….That musicals are no longer “dead.” Especially if Joss Whedon is involved and they’re available for free via the ‘net.

The LA Times has the scoop. And here’s the actual link where, if things go right, you’ll be able to watch the first installment of  Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (and, later, the other two) for free. You can also buy them for $1.99 each if you have iTunes and really want to give the Whedon family your money. (A DVD — with a singing commentary track — is promised later on.)

This apparent smash success puts me in mind of back when I was fixated on Whedon’s big screen directorial debut, Serenity (it’s a long story). Universal tried “viral promotional” largely through some atmospheric/creepy viral clips featuring Summer Glau (currently on the “Terminator” TV series), and sort of assumed that message boards and blogs would do the rest. Of course, the movie was well below expectations at the box-office and the consensus was that, if anything could have helped that notoriously hard to pitch film (which has nevertheless enjoyed the predictable success on DVD), it would have been more traditional promotion, and a lot of it.

Is the lesson here that promoting something exclusively on the Internet really can work if you’re product is mainly available on the ‘net? Or has the Whedon fanbase simply grown that much larger — perhaps hitting a kind of critical mass where the fanatics influence the less fanatical to take a look? (Being free certainly can’t hurt that.)Well, since I don’t even time right now to watch the first 15 minute installment (but “Fresh Air” TV critic and Whedon fan David Bianculli says it’s good), I’m certainly not going to risk an answer, but I’m sure it’s something marketing people might be thinking about.

More later, I’m sure. And if you want more now, there’s tons  of stuff up about “Dr. Horrible,” among other matters, at Whedonesque if you go as of right now.

UPDATE: I’ve now seen the first two parts (the third part goes live Friday, 7/19) and I really, really like it. (Note to my friends: Yes, I know that’s quite a shock.) I will say that a big, big part of the credit goes to the three leads. Neil Patrick Harris as the nice-guy villian Dr. Horrible and Nathan Fillion as the noxious superhero Captain Hammer are similar performers in that each settles so nicely into a role that you’re tempted to think that’s all they can do — until you see them fit just as nicely, if not better, into some other role. I already knew that Harris could sing really well, but Fillion proves a worthy enough vocal foe as well. Also,  playing straightwoman with two super lunatics, Felicia Day does a wonderful job of playing and singing that most thankless of roles, the nice, normal person.

Definitely worth a look for anyone to whom the words “supervillain musical” have any interest whatsoever. Catch while it’s still free.

Also, those interested in Dr. Horrible’s web success might want to take a gander at this. (H/t Whedonesque, of course.)

The show creators said at peak, the site was getting 200,000 hits per hour. In fact, a representative from their web hosting company, Vireo Verio.com, called to tell them the site had crashed when, at one point, 1,000 people tried to access it in one second.

I don’t usually follow this stuff, but it sure sounds like a lot to me, even considering the rabidity of the Whedonites. If anyone reading can come up with comparison between this and other big web events, I’d be curious to see how (un?)precedented this is.

By way of another plug for The Caine File, my Bullz-Eye feature on just a few of the acting triumphs of Michael Caine, here it is. If you must play it at work, keep the sound soft. Trust me on this.

I know Sir Michael’s talking about the character played by Peter Reigert in the entertaining, super-dark comic thriller, A Shock to the System, but it’s still hard not to get a little nervous at the end of that clip when he says, “I’ll talk to Bob.” Perils of having a common first name.

 

….That Michael Caine used to be teased by impressionists (starting with Peter Sellers) for saying “not a lot of people know that….” or “not many people know that…..” That’s just one of many factoids I learned recently while working on a Michael Caine feature that has just gone live over at Bullz-Eye.

I also didn’t know that he’d seen some serious action as a British soldier in the Korean war, is a big fan of “chillout” electronica and even released his own mix CD,  and that he’s authored trivia books entitled Not Many People Know That! and And Not Many People Know This Either!

Of course, very many people know that Sir Maurice Micklewhite, Jr., CBE (he’s never legally changed his name) is one of the most compelling and charismatic movie actors of all time, though a lot of them have no idea how serious he is about the art of film acting, but that’s all very much a part of his approach.

And so, a brief but powerful lesson in film acting, circa 1987….

As promised yesterday, here is yet another contribution from FtY’s illustrious past for the Self Involvement Blogathon curated by the man who calls himself Culture Snob. My vault of self-involvement is deep, baby. (You can see the original, pic-less February of ‘07 post, written for Jim Emerson’s now classic Contrarian Blogathon, here.)

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I hate people who talk at the movies. And I really hate people who take cell phone calls during movies — especially if they’re Larry King. On the other hand, if you hear someone snoring at that Dreyer, Bresson, or Ozu screening, it just might be me. I am a filmnambulist.

And it’s not just austere minimalists who can lull me into one of my cinematic siestas. If I’m tired enough, I can sleep through any universally acclaimed auteur. I’ve dozed through large portions of works by Kurasawa, Ford, Hawks (guess which movie), Bergman, Lang, Ophuls (both Max and Marcel), Lean, Welles, Melville, Ray (Satjayit and Nicolas!), Russ Meyers, and Edward D. Wood, Jr. I sleep through the classic and the campy alike.

I suppose this marks me as a typical ethnocentric American, but my filmnabulism appears to be more often triggered by non-English language films. Once I close my eyes, all I hear is a lot of what is, to my unilingual ears, otherworldly gibberish. Very relaxing. Quiet, yet urgently spoken, French, Japanese, Mandarin, or German is best. I once slept through the last two-thirds of Das Boot — explosions, bursting pipes, and all.

Cantonese, however makes for a fitful nap. And certain North American dialects are more difficult still. It is impossible to sleep through any movie featuring Rosie Perez in a speaking role.

So far, I have been able to manage the filmnambulist scourge through the ingestion of high amounts of caffeine and strict adherence to regime that specifies no Bergman after 10:00 p.m., no Italian neorealism post 9:00, and no Russian cinema, ever.

Now, this has a flip side, which is my well-documented status as something of a cinema chicken when it comes to gore laden horror violence on the one hand and the ever more popular comedic humiliation on the other. Lately, I’ve been trying to manage this tendency via the judicious use of those small alcoholic beverage bottles which I once thought were only available on airplanes, but which I now know can be purchased at any liquor store in Southern California.

You may call it self-medicating, but as Donald Rumsfeld reminds us, one goes to the movies with the constitution one has. Which is a long winded way of saying that I blame my parents.

My mother runs out to buy a hot-dog at the first sign of suspense. My octogenarian father, on the other hand, hasn’t stayed awake through a film since the Iran-Contra hearings — with the sole exception of Chicago.

That’s what I need: more movies with baby-faced peroxide blonds playing tap-dancing murderesses who kill without on-screen blood. I have it coming.

In any case, if you do hear me snoring behind you, my apologies. It could be worse, though.

“Hello, Nome, Alaska. I’m here with the latest masterpiece starring the great Ryan Philippe. What’s your question?”