Friday, February 27, 2009

spill TV is the channel for me

I'm guessing I'm one of the few who loves this theme.. can't stand most of the programs on the box but it's a compilation challenge.
I also like the fact that people think its a song about tele but only has a fleeting mention Becks 'Loser' and 'Beercan' are both like that for me. Maybe because I was unemployed lay-about with kids cartoons on and his album blasting out for the truck driving neighbors downstairs.

Most of these hit a televisual spot.. I had to resist putting Shacks 'Wanda' in
"she stuck her arse on top of the TV" not being enough I thought.

By the way HBOs 'Carnivale' was my recent favorite program (and it got cancelled)
Patrick McGoohans 'The Prisoner' my all time small screen joy.... What's yours?
(first time dropbox play list, hope it works...)

29 comments:

treefrogdemon said...

The Wire! Not that I've ever watched it on live TV - but I have all the box sets.

saneshane said...

Exactly how I watched 'Carnivale' box sets are the only way..

treefrogdemon said...

So, should I get Carnivale next?

Mnemonic said...

I have the box set of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, originally on VHS and replaced with DVD. I rewatch it at least once a year.

Still haven't started on The Wire. Is it really as good as everyone says?

treefrogdemon said...

Oh yes - I have all the Buffys too (and the Angels, and the Firefly). Yes, the Wire is excellent. You have to concentrate though - they don't introduce everybody at the beginning of each season, for instance, and it takes a while to work out who's who. I tend to watch them first without subtitles, then again with subtitles on so I can go 'Oh, THAT was what that meant...'

Still, what else is on telly that you want to watch?

saneshane said...

I would say - (even though I hate the comparisons idea)- If you are into Buffy then Carnivale would probably suit... go for it, no one that I've recommended it to has moaned yet.

http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/
home page there.

Two seasons beautifully filmed and dust bowl gothic.. I loved it.. they cancelled it.. bah humbug.. these people that run TV know nothing!!

I'm another that hasn't started the Wire.. I feel the shark may have jumped long ago.. I'm one of those that in a few years I'll pick it up and start from scratch.. Tv being completely opposite to Music in my absorption of it.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm king of the obscure when it comes to beloved TV shows: Dick Spanner, anyone? No? Then try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTJ_saqNRJM

Abahachi said...

Buffy, but not series 6, which was all WRONG. Battlestar Galactica. Foyle's War (one of the ones that Mrs Abahachi and I agree on, so don't have to wait for her to visit her mother to watch it). Anyone remember the excellent Ultraviolet, one series only of very edgy vampire-hunting drama? And why can't I find any channels on freeview repeating the genius that was Diana Rigg-era Avengers?

treefrogdemon said...

Ooh yes, me too for Battlestar Galactica - and I agree about Buffy 6, though there were some individual eps I liked.

nilpferd said...

Prisoner (and Dangerman), plus Avengers were brilliant, also as a late teen/undergrad I enjoyed whimsical things like Ever decreasing circles and A very Peculiar Practice, besides not so whimsical things like Edge of Darkness.
Get Smart, of course- thanks again for the episodes, Tin!
Um- I guess that means I stopped watching TV series in about 1989..

Carole said...

I have to say, I don't watch a lot of telly.

I love Buffy, Angel, Firefly, B5, Spooks, The L Word, Rome and Life on Mars on DVD and I'd rather watch those than most of the dreck that gets pumped out.

I am a fan of Masterchef, The Restaurant and The Apprentice though.

Anonymous said...

For those who liked Edge Of Darkness (inc me - got the videos) seek out Centrepoint, which I enjoyed so much I transcribed all four hour long episodes onto one 3hr tape by sitting there and editing out every last second of every last ad break!

On a much less intellectual level, I'll own up to loving Herman's Head & Dream On . . . anyone?

[Sound of tumbleweed only interrupted by the shuffling of feet and nervous throat-clearing noises gradually getting more distant.]

Anonymous said...

Old BBC drama series' Truckers? Or even older, Gangsters? Not even Richard Griffiths as Potbelly in The Cleopatras?

NONE OF 'EM?!

Blimey, I'll just chuck my Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) trump card down on the table and storm out in a huff then!

saneshane said...

DsD
I remember Dick Spanner - it was the bad jokes that I loved- equal to 'Police Squad'

was 'Dream on' the one that used old b & w films to show the thought process going on..?

Carole love your two levels!

saneshane said...

Buffy had an interesting arc that almost went too too wrong (6) - trying to be inclusive - then realizing it wasn't that kind of show.
odd that it has hits a spot with so many on here..

Avengers brilliant also.

DarceysDad said...

Shane,

Agreed about Police Squad: got the videos of all 6 episodes of that too!

And yes to your question about Dream On.

Here's the whole 1st episode of Herman's Head (unfortunately adbreaks included) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE489rs0fPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdfKPGzq05k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48TWUcTXbVw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfMd6-U_xxk

saneshane said...

sPILL tV
IS the best channel..


(I'm s'posed to be designing though)

Luke-sensei said...

impeccable playlist as ever Shane - great to hear Sheep On Drugs again. Brought back memories of Deadline magazine, which I got into just as it folded! I have a vague recollection of a free cassette with SOD on it, that must be tucked away in my mums loft somewhere.
Loved the Broken Records and Freeland tunes too.

TV-wise, it's all "variety" shows with the same "comedians" and b-list celebrities on them every day and cooking programmes over here. I do like a good predictable 6-part mini-series though and there are loads of those too.
My absolute favourite, which I wish I could share with everyone is a short (3 or 4 minutes) slot in a programme that has foreign songs with lyrics that sound like something funny in Japanese....but of course, you need to understand Japanese to enjoy it..

saneshane said...

cheers for listening japanther (i can't tell if anyone has on the dropbox or if it was working on other computers!!)

That Deadline tape would have Carter - senseless things - mega city four and some other stuff on it and must be something like 19 years ago... why can I remember that.. but not anything that would be of use.
(I still have the magazines and Tank Girl posters from it Kicking around and that tape somewhere - how they haven't been destroyed in various moves is beyond me)

I got paid two Sheep on Drugs 12" records for designing another bands cover, that being one of them.. thinking about it I should transfer '15 minutes of fame' later and see if that fits.

Luke-sensei said...

Shane - Being paid in Sheep On Drugs vinyl sounds great to me!! and I think you're right about that tape, that sounds right.

I was a big Senseless Things fan too, their tour with Leatherface was one of my earliest gigs and I have fond memories of buying their singles (on cassette) from the local record shop for 20p!

It was the only record shop in town (a smallish town just along the coast from Brighton) and the shop was just a room above a bookshop, but the owner was pretty on the ball. Lucky for us, no-one else in town listened to this kind of music, so we went in every week and waited until the singles we wanted were discounted down to 20p ('cos no-one wanted them) before we bought 'em! Got some great stuff from it; early Manics singles, Pop Will Eat Itself, Carter USM, all that great pre-britpop stuff......ah....good memories!
If you find that tape i'd be interested in what else was on it and exactly when it was..

Anonymous said...

I don't watch much TV but I do like the old Hercule Poirot twaddle with David Suchet. It's in the same bracket as Foyles War, you can fall asleep half way through and it doesn't matter at all. No need to stretch ze leetle grey cells whatsoever.

saneshane said...

Japanther - I also got paid in gig tickets and band members paying for my nights out.. happy days(sort of!)

There was a newsagent come record shop just outside of Bournemouth that I got my vinyl from in exactly the same way..
grabs handful: price stickers still legible
Carter usm sheriff fatman 10p
Sugarcubes Hit 49p
Massive unfinished sympaphy 10p
Happy Mondays Loose fit/bob yer uncle 20p
Stone Roses waterfall 10p

they also gave me a Shamen promo poster of In Gorbachev We Trust ("what the fuck is this commie shit") that covered a whole damp wood chip wall of my bedsit. UUMMMM Happy days!!

steenbeck said...

Haven't had tim e to listen to anything yet this week, but looking forward to your list.

Like everyone else I have to preface this with "I don't watch much television..." Which is true, we don't have a working television, and I wasn't allowed to watch much growing up, but...

I have to admit to a certain fondness for some funny shows, especially when I'm very very tired...Seinfeld, The Simpsons, The Office, British or American version... And don't tell anyone, but I like BBC or ITV adaptations of 18th and 19th century novels. Embarrassing, I know, but there it is...

treefrogdemon said...

Not embarrassing at all - they're usually very well done. There does seem to be a bit of a backlash against 'bonnet TV' at the moment though, which I find hard to understand...after all, if it's something set in the days when bonnets were worn, you really do have to have 'em.

'Lark Rise', however, in its current BBC1 incarnation, has long lost contact with the actual books and is now an embarrassment to itself.

Anonymous said...

Yes Minister. I have them all. Humphrey Appleby is my mentor and guru.

treefrogdemon said...

fp, I once saw Nigel Hawthorne at the Chelsea Flower Show - he was carrying a large Geranium phaeum. (So it must have been the Friday, because at Chelsea you can only buy plants on the last day, after they ring the bell at 5.) A man of taste!

ejaydee said...

Donds for Dream ON (who were the poor sods who had to trawl through and remember so much footage?), Seinfeld, Simpsons, The Office (UK&US)!

I'm watching The Wire for the second time, and it gets better. Also, like tfd, now that I'm using subtitles I understand things that completely passed me by the first time around. If anybody ends up trying it, don't give up if the first couple of episodes don't do it for you. It's worth it.
Some that nobody has mentioned yet are Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Sopranos. I was cool with the latter until I gave it proper attention this summer. I watched it all in one go, and it is a genuine masterpiece.
But that's all the respecatble stuff: I have to admit to having seen all of Friends, but that's the only mainstream sitcom I indulged in, unless we count 30 Rock in that category.
I also fell in love with the Fast Show during my first time in England, formative and seminal.
Ooh and Planet Earth, and whatever is produced by these nature people at the BBC.
Oh, and Kitchen Nightmares, even though I love to hate Gordon Ramsey.

Hmm, like Steenbeck I wasn't allowed to watch too much TV as a kid, but I've caught up since...

treefrogdemon said...

ejaydee, I love Kitchen Nightmares too, even though (or because) it's so predictably formulaic. At least there are two formulae - it's either 'mad megalomaniac chef will not listen to reason' or 'ignorant restaurant owner with neither experience nor aptitude will not listen to reason'. But it's fun.

nilpferd said...

BTW, musicwise I liked the Freeland and Frazier Chorus tracks best..