Friday, May 24

Four Arrested Development Bits That Just Don't Work

by Jason Toon 27 days ago

Is Arrested Development one of the funniest, weirdest, best TV shows ever made? No question. Am I eagerly awaiting the return of Arrested Development on Netflix this weekend? You know it, bro. Can Arrested Development sometimes drop a miserable crud-bomb of a joke that makes me squirm with embarrassment for everyone involved? Emphatically, yes.

Here are four Arrested Development bits I've been trying really hard to forget. Let's hope Mitchell Hurwitz et al. don't force me to remember.

Wednesday, February 20

The Trivial Eye: TV Workplaces

by Jason Toon 4 months ago

As our Cubicle Fever Woot-Off grinds on, here's another piece of work-related (but not that way) frivolity to provide a few minutes of relief from your salaryman anomie. Below you'll find eight workplaces from television programs, some with their names blurred. Can you identify the shows, and the fictional workplaces where their characters punch their imaginary timeclocks?

Wednesday, January 23

The Trivial Eye: 90s Movies Based on Old TV Shows

by Jason Toon 5 months ago

OK, maybe the '80s got it started with Dragnet, but we really have the '90s to blame for the plague of Hollywood remakes of old TV shows. If it was on the Nick at Nite lineup, you can bet some producer was trying to convince Judge Reinhold or Kelly McGillis that it would be a perfect family-friendly comeback vehicle. Can you endure the awful memories long enough to remember these eight '90s movies based on much earlier TV sources?

Wednesday, September 05

The Trivial Eye: The British Version

by Jason Toon 10 months ago

Rejoice, TV snobs! MTV's new remake of the uproariously vulgar British teen sitcom The Inbetweeners (reviewed on this very blog) gives you a new opportunity to sneer "the original British version was better." Here are shots from eight British shows in that grand tradition. Can you name them, and/or the American series they spawned (inferior or otherwise)?

Wednesday, August 22

The Trivial Eye: Fake Bands

by Jason Toon 10 months ago

Part scrappy gangs of streetfighters, part larger-than-life demigods, rock and hip-hop groups have grown into the closest approximations to legends you'll find in our skeptical age. So it's not surprising that so many movies and TV shows have populated their epic tales of success and excess with imaginary pop stars - enough to keep the Rocklopedia Fakebandica growing every day.

You won't see any of these acts on a festival stage near you (with maybe one exception), but can you name them, and the fictional movie or TV universes where they're famous?

Tuesday, July 24

WootFlix: Interested in The Inbetweeners?

by Randall Cleveland a year ago

There are only so many hours in a day, which is why you can't waste your time at work watching just ANYTHING on Netflix Instant. That's why I swim through the krill that is online streaming content and filter out only the choicest, juiciest plankton for your enjoyment. Or something. Anyway, it's called WootFlix.

This week's show: Another British sitcom, "The Inbetweeners"

Tuesday, July 10

WootFlix: Take a Gander at Green Wing

by Randall Cleveland a year ago

Your time's valuable. That's why you need to know before you commit to watching an old television show on Netflix that it's going to be good, dammit! So I filter the detritus of Netflix Instant and watch it all at work so I can let you know what's worth watching and what's not worth the trouble. It all gets piled into a little thing I call WootFlix.

This week's show: The British sitcom "Green Wing"

Wednesday, June 13

The Trivial Eye: Sitcom Dads

by Jason Toon a year ago

For Dad Week on the Woot blog, we salute that warm, reassuring presence that saw us through the travails of childhood: television. For my generation of American males, so much of our conception of fatherhood comes from sitcoms, it's amazing we can raise our kids without a laugh track. Can you identify these eight tele-Dads? True trivia show-offs can name the shows, the characters, and the actors who played them...

Tuesday, June 05

WootFlix: Dare You Watch The Dresden Files?

by Randall Cleveland a year ago

I spend my day at work whiling away the hours and avoiding work by watching whatever I can find on Netflix Instant, which is why I feel qualified to give you my opinion on what's worth watching and what's just a waste of your valuable time. This week, I'm reviewing DaveInSoCal's suggestion: The Dresden Files.

Tuesday, May 29

WootFlix: Is "Lights Out" Worth Watching?

by Randall Cleveland a year ago

I'm not trying to brag here, but I've got a great job. I get paid to try to be funny (yes, we can argue about my success, but the point is they pay me to try) and I spend my day surfing the 'net for viral videos, links, and junk to talk about with you guys. I also spend most of the day with Netflix Instant running in the background to give me some much-appreciated background noise.