Monday, May 21, 2012
WE'LL BE THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN NETWORK TV SHOW: Great AV Club inventory today -- fictional works of art, within a film or tv show, which aren't nearly as awesome as the characters want us to believe, such as Roger's "one great song" in Rent, Katherine McPhee's performance in Smash, or the titular composition in that Richard Dreyfuss teacher film. [Basically, the opposite of The Wonders' one hit in That Thing You Do!.]
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Haven't clicked over yet, but I take it I'm the only one who really loves Mr. Holland's "An American Symphony" and wished there was a longer version abvailable than the soundtrack CD's 11-minute version?
ReplyDeleteI've never been entirely sold on Janey and Jeff's winning routine in "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." Is this a dance-off or a tumbling competition?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/TASGl0_jnjU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
Staying in the 80s teen movie realm, in Some Kind of Wonderful, I've always thought the face in Keith's portrait of Amanda looks nothing like her: http://content9.flixster.com/question/42/47/75/4247755_std.jpg
ReplyDeleteCrucial Taunt in Wayne's World was pretty awful. Which would have been fine, except that it was claimed that they were better than the Shitty Beetles and we were given no basis for comparison.
ReplyDeleteRent really hasn't aged well, has it?
ReplyDeleteI've been listening to a playlist that tries to put the songs from "Bombshell" in order. I really enjoy the most of the songs, but listening to them away from the TV, I can't imagine the lyrics having been written by the Julia we've seen. I think she's been writing crap this whole time, and Tom rewrites them behind her back.
I never thought Maureen's piece was supposed to be great art (or maybe that's the only way I can tolerate that scene). I thought it reflected how self-centered she is, that she thinks everything she comes up with is amazing. And it also felt like a lot of 80's performance art - people smearing chocolate on themselves, etc. - basically the kind of thing Daryl Hannah does in Legal Eagles, as the AV Club describes, and the kind of thing JJ does in Doonesbury. Things that get plaudits from some, but always seemed pointless to me.
ReplyDeleteWell, two things:
ReplyDelete1. I think the further we get from the time and period in which Rent debuted, the more that scene gets played for laughs on stage.
2. Regardless, we're still supposed to believe that it's such a powerful piece of art that Benny wants it shut down.
Not going to lie, I kind of love that Wayne/Teddy Geiger song that was all over Love Monkey ("Confidence" I think?). At the very least, it was non-offensive enough that I didn't mind hearing it over and over, and still don't on those random occasions that Universal HD replays the show.
ReplyDeleteSpringtime for Hitler, anyone?
ReplyDeleteI consider "Springtime for Hitler" to be the opposite: It was supposed to be awful, and it actually was awesome.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, considering the amount of conversation it has generated on this site: EVERYTHING in the fake TV show at the heart of "Studio 60." Was there a single skit that they showed that was actually funny?
Did you see the title of this post?
ReplyDeleteCan I point out that for it's various faults over the years, TGS on 30 Rock was at least never held up as some paragon of comedy over the years? In fact, I think we've gotten the feeling over the years that it's actually not that good, from glimpses of sketches and the like.
ReplyDeleteCredit to Felicity, Sean's "Docuventary", which served as a clever device allowing the characters to deliver monologues, was ultimately not picked up by IFC, which is as it should be, as it would have been terrible to watch.
ReplyDeleteAs much fun as this point-and-laugh list is, I'd much rather see a list of where writers/characters/actors DO get it right. That's much harder to actually pull off. At the top of that list is, yes, That Thing You Do, but also the writings of one Mr. Ben Hargrove.
ReplyDeleteWait -- "Oneders," right? Or was that a joke?
ReplyDeleteFiled under random bits of my life, I was an extra in that Richard Dreyfuss teacher film.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Benny wanted to shut it down not because it was a powerful piece of art, but because it was an annoying protest on land he wanted to develop. Wasn't it always played for laughs, too? I mean, "moo with me"?
ReplyDeleteAnything Dawson ever did and, relatedly, anything the Chad Michael Murray character ever wrote on One Tree Hill.
ReplyDeleteThe stirring rhetoric of President Santos and the debate skills of Senator Alda. -- Ted
ReplyDeleteI did. Apparently, though, I failed to pay attention to it. As a long-time journalist, I guess I'm just in the habit of skipping headlines and going right to the story.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely "That Thing You Do". And I totally love Tyra's college application essay in Friday Night Lights, I was probably just as teary as Landry listening to it. Also, uh....MouseRat. Specifically when they were playing the Valentine's gig for the seniors center, I think I loved their cover of "The Way You Look Tonight" as much as April did.
ReplyDeleteThey were the Oneders until halfway through the film, when the name was changed to Wonders, so people would stop calling them the O-Need-ers.
ReplyDeleteThe one song we've heard from Lincoln Hawk (Rufus' band on Gossip Girl) was actually pretty good.
ReplyDeleteSpecial shout out (sic) to Disney Channel. Demi Lovato's Sonny charachter was a player on a tween comedy sketch show. When Demi went into recovery, they actually retooled the show into the previously fictional sketch show "So Random".
ReplyDeleteGranted, it sucks. But it's probably shooting for an audience of 10 year olds, which is at least 3-4 years below my usual fare.
--bd
I wonder what happened to the Oneders?
ReplyDeleteI loved the AV Club list. I'd also like to see a list of the double-opposite - ones where the show wants you to believe something is hideously awful, and then when they show it to you, it actually is. Examples: Elaine Benes's dancing, or Monica and Ross's dance routine. Both are even worse in the showing than I imagined them being.
ReplyDeleteAs a twist, there's the whole conceit of the novel "The Princess Bride" with Goldman realizing he has to edit the original book down to just the "good bits" so his kid will enjoy it the way he did when his dad edited it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Ross's "music."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/BuBJLTdr_pQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
Also, Sex Bob-omb from Scott Pilgrim kicked ass.
ReplyDeleteAlso -- and it may be because I was at the proper age for this -- but Brian's letter to Angela in the finale of My So-Called Life was amazing. I don't know if it still holds up, but it was something really small and just fit into this empty place in my heart.
ReplyDeleteSex Bob-omb might have been *too* good - I never got the impression that their music was supposed to be as strong as the stuff Beck wrote for the film.
ReplyDeleteGot it right: every song in Robert Altman's Nashville.
ReplyDelete"Man Of Constant Sorrow" in "O Brother" would definitely turn an unknown band into a music sensation.
ReplyDelete90210 Ray Pruit's music?
ReplyDeleteAnd, as someone named Watts, you have a stake in that fight!
ReplyDeleteOh, and intentionally terrible both times, but as a little innocent lamb, I remember feeling slightly let down by Douglas Adams' Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, and then years later, after I had gotten more into the joke, still somehow much more let down but in the same way<span></span> by God's Final Message to His Creation.
ReplyDeleteEven later than that I got to hear Adams talk about a movie studio who bought the rights but wanted him to change the Answer to something like "love" - he said it was as they had bought a tub of chocolate chip ice cream and were coming back to complain about all the little black bits. So at least I know that at age 8 or so I had achieved around the same maturity as your average high-powered Hollywood exec.
I vote Dolphin Girl for the least funny skit.
ReplyDeleteSorkin was awful at sketch comedy, but the political speeches by the communications team on TWW were as good as advertised.
ReplyDeleteSpinal Tap were exactly what they were supposed to be -- they were ridiculous and over-the-top, but you could hear why people would love them, and it was believable that they were a once-huge band whose bubble had popped.
Jerry's painting of Leslie on P&R also was perfect for what it was. It was amazing for a low-level government employee, in a naive art kind of way. It was actually similar to a lot of LA self-conscious kitsch art, the kind of stuff you'd see in a low-end Silver Lake gallery, though obviously Jerry wasn't being sarcastic with what he was painting. It was way better than the supposedly moving BS that Tom bought from an art student in Season 2 when they were doing the mural competition.
I'll add a layer to this. Level 1: Actual work builds up fictional work as something great (it's terrible). Level 2: Actual work builds up fictional work as something terrible (it is). Level 3: Characters in actual work build up fictional work as something great, but actual work is kind of making fun of the characters, so the actual work is building up fictional work as something terrible (it is). My Level 3 examples: the acting scenes in Boogie Nights.
ReplyDeleteOh, also: Adam Scott's character's acting on Party Down. In the episode with Steve Guttenberg, when they are doing Roman's terrible screenplay, he is legitimately terrific.
ReplyDeleteAnd Roman's terrible screenplay is appropriately and legitimately terrible.
ReplyDeleteLove Handel from Phineas and Ferb are worthly of their 80's one-hit-wonder status.
ReplyDeleteNick Nolte's painting in "New York Stories."
ReplyDeleteThere have actually been one or two sketches that I thought were about as good as anything SNL has done lately. "Your Daughter's Closet" comes to mind.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/BEXF9hD4GfI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
Did someone say a complaint aboiut the chocolate chips!
ReplyDeleteSatan demands a recount: In The Devil Went Down to Georgia I prefer the devil's fiddle playing. Also though the devil kicked the karate kid's ass in Crossroads.
ReplyDeleteIn Bandslam, Vanessa Hudgens made the band worse.
For getting it right, there's Chris Stevens' art on Northern Exposure. From the piano flinging to the Northern Lights sculpture, his works were always interesting and almost always successful.
ReplyDeleteGetting it right? The Jeff Bridges songs in Crazy Heart. "<span><span>Funny how falling feels like flying, for a little while</span>." Love that line.<span></span></span>
ReplyDeleteThe folks at McSweeney's agree with you about Charlie Daniels (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/thirty-nine-questions-for-charlie-daniels-upon-hearing-the-devil-went-down-to-georgia-for-the-first-time-in-25-years)
ReplyDeleteI think it's the murinal that wins the prize here. It's a great idea for a government art piece.
ReplyDeleteI was going to make the Devil argument but I wasn't sure if songs were in bounds for discussion.
ReplyDeleteIMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: The Devil Went Down to Georgia is not worth listening to if it's the bowdlerized "Son of a gun" version. "Son of a bitch" scans better and has more bite.
I just saw the David Cromer directed version of it at ATC here in Chicago. It was much grittier, and you remembered oh yeah these kids are squatters, but whoa did the flaws and age of that show flare up badly.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the Angel couldn't sing very well and wasn't the kind of dancer you would expect him to be, but he was the best part of the show in a ways I cannot explain (ballsy, real, emotional).
This scene sends my fiancee into painful giggles. He cannot stop laughing. It just cracks him up so much it cracks me up.
ReplyDeleteWho wants a gold fiddle?
ReplyDelete"Wouldn't a solid gold fiddle weigh hundreds of pounds and sound crummy?"
ReplyDelete"Well, it's mostly for show."
I love the movie "Kissing Jessica Stein," but I never thought the one full example we see of Jessica's art (on the wall in her mother's dining room) really lived up to the idea that everyone had of her as a very talented artist. Or maybe it just wasn't my thing.
ReplyDeleteI first saw Rent in 1996 and Maureen's show was definitely played for laughs then, which I thought was great at the time since the performance had already struck me as absurd on the cast album.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't think the musical implies that "Your Eyes" is any good; Mark's entire evolution is about how he can't write a song expressing his feelings, and in the end it's pretty transparently portrayed as a means to the end of expressing his love rather than any sort of grand artistic achievement.