TV and Burgers

As we all know Sir Griffin is way behind in his fall TV previews, but there is no need to complain.  I will, eventually, get all of them finished.  I realize that some shows may have already been canceled by the time I get this all done, but as always, Sir Griffin will do his best.  We’re taking a look today at NBC and fortunately for you I have already seen several of these shows so I can give some definitive opinions.  I am going to start with the four shows in which I have already seen the pilot.  Go On – Matthew Perry returns with another attempt to headline his own show.  And while I enjoyed Mr. Sunshine, I can tell you that this show is substantially better.  Perry plays sportscaster Ryan King, a widower who has joined a support group to help him cope with the loss of his wife.  I know it does not sound like a particularly funny topic, but I can tell you that it is very humorous.  I loved the pilot and particularly enjoye...

It's that time of year again my friends.  The new shows will be arriving very soon and due to a vigorous summer schedule Sir Griffin is behind in his previews.  But fear not TV & Burger fans as it is finally time to begin.  We start with ABC. 666 Park Avenue - This is a show about a couple who move into a Manhattan building and learn that it just might be possessed by a demonic force .   The show  stars Terry O'Quinn from Lost and Vanessa Williams as the building's owner and his beautiful wife.  Also starring is Rachael Taylor and Dave Annable as the aforementioned young couple.  This show looks terrific.  Terry O'Quinn has long been one of my favorite actors and any show that has demonic forces will always pique my interest.  Chances of me watching: 100%. Nashville - I have already seen the premiere episode of this show and I can tell you it sucks.  Big time.  It stars Connie Britton as Rayna, a fading country music s...

"Ezekiel saw the wheel. This is the wheel he said he saw.  These are Unidentified Flying Objects that people say they are seeing now.  Are they proof that we are being visited by civilizations from other stars? Or just what are they? What you are about to see is part of a 20-year search." Those words, spoken by Jack Webb, were the introduction to each episode of Project U.F.O. which ran on NBC for two seasons beginning in February 1978.  The show was based on the files of Project Blue Book, which was a study of unidentified flying objects by the US Air Force between 1952 and 1969.  The show starred William Jordan as Major Jake Gatlin and Caskey Swaim as Staff Sergeant Harry Fitz as two Air Force investigators working on Project Blue Book.  In season two Jordan was replaced by Edward Winter as Captain Ben Ryan and the show suffered greatly.  Winter, who had been brilliant as Colonel Flagg on M*A*S*H*, was a dud here.  His presence and th...

"Two American scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project, the Time Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time." The Time Tunnel ran for one season on ABC from 1966 – 67.  A grand total of 30 episodes were produced and I loved every one of them.  Obviously the fact that I was a mere two year old when the show first aired meant that I only saw this show in reruns, but that never detracted from my enjoyment.  For those that somehow missed this sci-fi treasure, here’s the scoop: In a series of complexes 800 floors deep in the Arizona desert exists a top secret government project known as Project Tic-Toc.  Over 36000 people were employed there so how this was kept a secret must have been some sort of miracle in itself.  Where they all parked their cars was ...

Back in the day, before it was so popular to turn old TV shows into movies, it was fairly common to have a popular movie turned into a weekly TV series.  This rarely worked, but there are some notable exceptions such as M*A*S*H and Alice.  But for every one of those there are dozens that littered the TV landscape.  The problem was that most of those cinematic features did not really translate well to a television audience.  No one was really interested in watching Animal House get watered down to a weekly series called Delta House.  Some shows took the film’s original premise, tweaked it a bit, ignored the film’s ending and started over.  Such was the case with the 1977 series Logan’s Run. A little background for those who have forgotten:  Logan’s Run was a 1976 science fiction film about a dystopian society in the 23 rd century.  The people live in a “perfect world of total pleasure” with only one catch.  No one is allowe...