Yeah, the plot of the show is pretty stupid and barely serviceable as a means to deliver 80s top 40 hits. Any time they weren't singing it was pretty mind-numbing. That said, the music numbers were awesome.

"This bit is getting old" can be applied to nearly every single running gag in the show - BBT has a knack for latching, lamprey-like, on anything that might even possibly have some longevity and driving it into the ground. Oddly, I think the lesbian joke thing is one of the least annoying ones, but it's also a pretty…

That's the thing, for me, though. It was such a relief for them to finally do something with the characters and resolve some stuff that it pissed me off when they walked it back. I want the story to go somewhere and I liked the idea of them changing the dynamic of the show and revealing some stuff, because while I…

Yeah, just reconfirmed this on wikipedia. The ending of the book was shot and even I guess went through some post-production, because parts of it were used in promotional material and show up in the video game adaptation.

Even worse is that I believe they filmed the ending to the book but decided to not use it in the first movie? I think there's even a brief shot from it in one of the trailers.

Endtroducing really was masterful, in part because it blended ambient, trance, hiphop, and a bunch of other influences and used really surprising and unusual samples. I've heard people say it doesn't hold up, but I still think it sounds pretty remarkable and unique. Most of the stuff he's released under his own name…

Yeah, this was my impression as well. I find it really irritating and snobbish, like listening to someone criticize someone else's taste in music. There's tons of things about the suburbs that are ripe for satire, but I felt like the show sort of missed the mark. The bit about women throwing themselves at her dad…

I felt the same way about Black Belt Jones, which I saw before Black Dynamite. There were a few spots in Black Dynamite that were really great ("I threw that shit before I even came into the room!"), but the (very) slight edge of seriousness in BBJ made it funnier to me.

I don't think much thought was given to the order these episodes aired in or what the "finale" was. With a youth-targeted show in that particular time period, it seems like you were lucky if your eps didn't air in a completely random order. It seems like it got even worse in reruns, especially when shownig eps back to…

No, I believe you're right and he is mentioned as being the last Hell's Angel, after the others were killed off in (I think) the events leading up to Hell Tanner's arrest.

Yeah, I think it's basically impossible to adapt, not like on a technical level but in terms of finding people who wouldn't totally fuck it up and make it a massive box office failure of an action movie or just a huge train wreck in general.

Lord of Light is such a good book and it's a shame more people haven't heard of it. It's one of those books that wins the big scifi awards and then is largely forgotten in two years, for whatever reason.

The novel is great and, sadly, the movie excised most of the really clever aspects. In the book, the main character is named Hell Tanner, not JAKE Tanner, and he's a convicted murderer and a member of a post-apocalyptic biker gang, not a military officer. He's offered a pardon in exchange for racing across the country…

Addendum: It's almost as if people don't like big groups of teenagers wandering all over their private property!

Pretty sure Weird NJ was the first place I read any in-depth coverage of them. I hate how credulous they are, though, it seems like they'll basically print anything anyone sends in, Weekly World News-style. Just about every single entry for a vaguely spooky area (and there are, like, scores - just including the…

The Ramapough
You don't mention it, and I'm not sure if the documentary does at all, but the Ramapough are something of a unique case because their origins and history are somewhat controversial and they're not as easily categorized as a straight-up Native American group. It's actually really interesting if you care…

I think Pete & Pete should be remembered and lauded for being a formative experience for people in terms of tastes in music, humor, and TV, and for being ahead of its time. But that makes it very much a thing OF its time. It's still good, but it can't really have the same impact on people who a) aren't 12 anymore and…

Pinwheel was a variety show that aired at the same time, I believe. It showed a lot of European cartoon shorts. I specifically remember one about a boy who imagined household objects as more fantastical things, and he wanted to imagine something that incorporated a handsaw (like the blade of a helicopter, or a sword),…

Also, I just want to point out that once they started doing the Nick Jr. stuff during the day, it ruined staying home sick from school because all there was to watch was god damn Face and shows like Eureka's Castle. Man, I can feel grade school me gettin' mad all over again deep down in my brain.

Nickelodeon aired David the Gnome pretty consistently in programming blocks aimed at very young children. So the kids watching this could easily be like… 3-5, depending. I'm pretty sure that for a while they aired it during the day on weekdays as part of Nick Jr. with that MOTHERFUCKING Face, so it was definitely in…