What Took the US so long?
I just saw this on DVD — it came out in the UK ages ago, which is a turnip for the books. I'm not a huge Carrey fan (hated Ace Ventura, never saw Dumb and Dumber and was even disappointed — after all I'd heard — by |Cable Guy, which I thought was leaden and unfunny) but…well, he tends to…

totally agree — it sounds more to me like a goat having an epileptic fit, but that's just me.

Thanks for the mention of the SCTV sketch — whenever I hear about the Golden Globes, I think of two things, one being this sketch, and the other is a journalist's comment that getting a Golden Globe was the equivalent of getting a bad cold.

Da Silva made quite a career out of being Ben Franklin, even in adverts (I seem to remember him in an airline commercial in the 70s) but I read that he'd behaved so badly during the stage run that he had to beg to play it in the film.

Abe Lincoln in Illinois (almost shown on a loop by WPIX when i was a kid) starred Raymond Massey, and I believe it's about him that someone said: "He won't be happy 'til someone assassinates him".

Always loved William Daniels — he's one of those great unsung American character actors (watch him pop up in "The President's Analyst" and "The Parallax View"). But this film, which I've always defended for the very reasons you indicated here — for a musical it's actually a damned gritty look at the mechanics of…

Bagdad Cafe
Thought she was hot in Bagdad Cafe, and really enjoyed that film mainly due to her performance. Turns out I also saw her onstage — I have a program from a NYC Shakespeare in the Park production of Coriolanus. I remember I liked it a lot despite the critical flak it got, although I didn't know any of the…

Ah, the beloved art of the TV edit, bringing us such classics as this and "melon-farmer".

Hugely underrated actor
I saw him in a play called "The Show Off" at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven in the mid-70s, and he was utterly brilliant. I always thought he hasn't really had his due. thanks for the interview.

The horror, the horror
I loved their first album, but this is just appalling 80s plastic pop bollocks, drenched in synth riffs and decked out in brain-dead lyrics. It's the worst example of craven pimping for pop I've ever heard, with its nagging, insistent and nauseating choruses, as if Howard Jones has been…

Hmm…I find the Eels hit and miss: Electro-Shock Blues is one of my all-time faves, and after that…well, each album will contain at least one great song (well, with the exception of Shootenanny!). Having said that, I never took to Blinking Lights. I felt it was everything else he'd ever done, put through a blender…

"I find that when someone on the internet misspells the fancy word they're attempting to use (e.g. "peurile"), I immediately dismiss their argument and move on. Does this make me a snob? "

Can I join you?

Personally, I always thought the Hold Steady cover was perfect for the kind of peurile, derivative music that I was horrified to find inside. It reeks of the drunken fratboy waving his beer in the air, going "Whoo-hoo!" and hoping that, if he mentions Berryman, he'll get laid.

Extras/Who
Mmmm…wrong call, there. The supreme episode of Extras — although for non-Brits I can see why this wouldn't be the case — is the one with Les Dennis, who really put himself and his own image through the wringer, as well as nailing the whole dead-end of celebrity and panto in one. The McKellan episode…

Oh, dear, Mr Oates, it appears to be true: One should never meet one's heroes. Still, you were great in that episode of "Lost in Space".

Rough Diamond
As an old prog fan, I know many, many 10 min + tunes, but most wouldn't count as "pop", but it's good to see Pink Floyd and Yes given their due.