Daily Dispatch

5 Headscratching Golden Globe Nominations

Since the 1960s, the Golden Globes have honored the finest in television…usually.

Once seen as a second-rate version of the Oscars, combined with a second-rate version of the Emmys, the stature of the Golden Globes has risen in recent years, with highly rated TV telecasts hosted by Ricky Gervais, and Tina Fey with Amy Poehler. It’s still a strange awards ceremony – attendees can drink alcohol throughout the ceremony, and the awards themselves are voted by entertainment journalists from outside of the United States. Result: some headscratching nominations (and even wins).

• In 1978, the long-running TV news magazine 60 Minutes actually won the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series, beating out scripted dramas like Lou Grant and the miniseries Holocaust. 60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt had actually refused the nomination, but the show remained on the ballot anyway.

There’s A Small Chance This Article May Kill You

But it’s a very small chance. Behold the morbid mathematical weirdness of micromorts.

In the middle of the 20th century, “risk assessment” became a field of interest for statisticians and actuaries alike. The idea was to create a mathematical model to determine exactly how risky an activity might be—riding a motorcycle or living in a house with a radon gas leak, for example.

But here’s the thing—everything carries with it some kind of risk. You could die by choking on a banana, or from spontaneous combustion. Both are extremely rare possibilities, but they’re possibilities nevertheless.

It’s Time for ‘Time’ Person of the Year!

Once again, Uncle John came in at #2.

• Entertainment Weekly publishes a list of the year’s top movie’s each December. Rolling Stone prints a list of the year’s best albums. The year-end superlatives started in 1927, with Time’s “Man of the Year.” It came about as an idea to fill space during a slow news week (as December often is), and also as a way for Time editors to make good on a mistake from earlier in the year. When Charles Lindbergh made his solo transatlantic flight…Time failed to put him on the cover. To make up for it, editors made Lindbergh Time’s “Man of the Year,” recognizing him as the year’s most dynamic newsmaker.

Boxing Day 101

In the United States, the day after Christmas is simply the day after Christmas. In the UK, however, it is Boxing Day: a holiday in its own right.

Tip Till You Flip Boxing Day is December 26. Traditionally this is when all the haves distributed gifts and money to the have-nots—the poor or people who provided services throughout the year.

Street sweepers, waiters, lamplighters, milkmen, newsboys— you name it. Think of it as a Victorian orgy of tipping— though it actually goes back much further than Victoria’s reign. A 16th-century abbess, for instance, wrote about giving money to her kitchen clerk, servants, the gardener, and the “Baily of the Husbandry,” whatever that was.

Impossible Questions: The Name Game

Impossible QuestionsThink you know everything there is to know? See if you can answer these brain-benders…and come back tomorrow to see if you’re right.

 

1. For what works are the 19th century authors A.M. Barnard, Currer Bell, and Ellis Bell best known?

 

2. Why are writers Nathan E. Douglas, Ian McLellan Hunter, and Robert Rich most famous?

 

3. What do Roderick Jaynes, Donald Kaufman, and P.H. Vazak have in common?

 

Want more impossible questions? Check out Uncle John’s Impossible Questions.

Netflix Mailers

How Netflix Works

The long, strange journey of a Netflix DVD.

How Netflix WorksWhen you place a disc into the Netflix-provided return envelope, it’s addressed to a simple post office box number. So does Netflix have a gigantic P.O. box at every post office in North America? Nope—that box number written on the envelope doesn’t really exist.

Fact or Fake Friday

FactOrFake Logo 1It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for your weekly fake-out. Here’s how it works: Two of the three following stories are true. And one of them we made up. Can you guess which one is the fake? Pick your answer at the end of the article and see if you’re right.

Famous TV Sign-Offs

To mark the release of Anchorman 2, here is a look back at famous anchormen and their signature “sign-off.” You stay classy, BRI Fans.

hi-anchorman-ap-Sign Offs“Good night, and good luck.” Possibly the most famous sign-off in TV history, this phrase was coined by 1950s CBS News personality Edward R. Murrow (Person to Person, See It Now). He had gotten his start on CBS Radio during World War II, broadcasting from the rooftops of London buildings during the German blitz. With the line, Murrow was earnestly reaching out to the audience in an attempt to provide comfort. He kept the line after the war.

3 Forgotten Christmas TV Specials

Some specials, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or How the Grinch Stole Christmas become beloved TV treasures that air every December for decades. Others…don’t.

A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)

forgotten christmas tv specialsKermit, Miss Piggy, and all the other Muppets have been featured in a lot of Christmas-themed movies and TV specials over the years, notably the 1992 big-screen The Muppet Christmas Carol, and a 1979 special co-hosted by John Denver (which spawned their hit rendition of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” This TV special doesn’t get much airplay anymore. The plot: Fozzie Bear surprises his mother by staying at her country home over the holidays, along with most of the other Muppets, and many of monsters and critters from Sesame Street. Over the course of Christmas Eve, the Swedish Chef tries to cook Big Bird, Miss Piggy gets stuck in a blizzard ,and Kermit discovers an underground cavern that leads him to the magical creatures from Fraggle Rock. Watch for the cameo from Muppets/Sesame Street/Fraggle Rock creator Jim Henson, who shows up at the end to wash all of his creations’ dirty dishes.

8 Quick Facts About “White Christmas”

Stuff you didn’t know about the most popular Christmas song of the 20th century.

Facts About White Christmas• Legendary songwriter Irving Berlin wrote the song from the point of view of a New Yorker (like himself) stuck in warm California for Christmas (as he had been). That sentiment was made explicitly clear by the song’s original first verse, which mentions “the sun is shining,” “the grass is green,” and things like palm trees and Beverly Hills.

• “White Christmas” was picked to be included in the 1942 Bing Crosby movie Holiday Inn—both Crosby and his producer thought that the song wouldn’t have much worth outside of the movie with that verse. So it was dropped.

Impossible Questions: Music

Impossible QuestionsYou’ll Never Guess the Answers To These Impossible Questions About Music!

Think you know everything there is to know? See if you can answer these brain-benders…and come back tomorrow to see if you’re right.

 

1. What do these hit albums have in common: Boston’s Don’t Look Back, Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night, the Beatles’ Help!, Nat “King” Cole’s Unforgettable…and the Baha Men’s Who Let the Dogs Out?

2. What do these albums have in common: With the Beatles (The Beatles), Silver Side Up (Nickelback), and Seventh Star (Black Sabbath)

3. What do Warren Zevon, Roxy Music, Willie Nelson, the Moody Blues, Joe Cocker, and the Cars have in common?

Who Will Have the Christmas #1 in the UK?

Every year, the UK goes a little mad as pop stars compete to see who will get the completely ceremonial honor of having the #1 song in the country on Christmas. Here’s a look at this cultural phenomenon, which has no real comparison in the U.S.

Christmas #1 in the UKIn the 2003 Christmas-set romantic comedy Love, Actually, aging pop star Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) tries to revive his career by trying to get a Christmas #1 with a song called “Christmas is All Around,” a holiday-themed remake of the Troggs’ hit “Love is All Around.” Mack calls it a “festering turd of a record.” It’s a satirical look at the English pop cultural phenomenon of the music industry – and music buyers – guessing what song will be #1 on Christmas Day.

3 More Kinds of TV Shows That Have Disappeared From Television

When we ran a piece earlier this month about TV genres that have all but disappeared from the tube, you gave us some great suggestions for another look at some fading television institutions.

Gunsmoke_RevWesterns. Westerns were popular on radio, and when TV took hold in the 1950s, westerns hitched a ride. By 1959, 26 westerns were airing on the three TV networks. All those shows (such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Rawhide, and Wagon Train) were among the first times TV productions ventured out of small studios to shoot on location to create more cinematic programming. And with all of the undeveloped Old West-like expanses just outside of Hollywood at the time, it was a relatively cheap undertaking. By the late ’60s, too many westerns cannibalized demand, and their popularity led to higher production costs. Then in the early ’70s, CBS undertook a “rural purge,” clearing its schedule of anything rural themed, such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Hee Haw, and all of its westerns, including 20-season veteran Gunsmoke. A few attempts have been made to revive the western, (Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, Hell on Wheels, Deadwood) but its never mosied on back to its former heights.

“People Really Do Win on MTV”

Game shows give away cash and dining room tables. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, MTV gave away stuff like Jon Bon Jovi’s house.

Be in a Loverboy video!

PrintThe ‘80s rock band Loverboy were one of the first big stars of the MTV era. In 1983, they joined up with the video channel for a contest that would allow the winner to be the video for their single “Queen of the Broken Hearts.” A viewer named Bridget Magnesi won the prize. She didn’t exactly get to star in the video—catch a glimpse of Magnesi at the 0:18 and 0:23 marks in the video. She’s the woman sitting behind the control panel.

  1. Pages:
  3. ...
  4. 127
  5. 128
  6. 129
  7. ...