Lesson: If you're going to base a whole strategy on a Mad Men character's quotes, base it on Roger Sterling quotes.

I would have added CBS' "Swingtown," the '08 series that promised to take us deep into the world of 70's suburban swinging, but delivered a fairly standard (and dull) period family drama instead. Given the timing, "Mad Men" premiered in '07, "Swingtown" in '08, the latter likely wasn't specifically developed with the…

Yeah, but "The Pretender" is about the boomer/hippie generation discovering that, despite their efforts to build lives that were based on things that were the total opposite of what people like Don valued, they've become pretty much the same. Hence the lyric:

Carey Grant is a particularly good analogue for Don Draper because, like Don, "Carey Grant" is an entirely fabricated persona. Born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England to a mother placed in a mental institution shortly after he was born, he made his living as a youth as a stilt walker in a stage troupe. The name, the…

I never saw Don as all that difficult to understand: He's a relatively smart kid who was born into a pretty crappy life, and pulled himself up out of it through a combination of intelligence, talent, and self-preservation instinct. But he didn't have many good human connections or role models to lean on or learn from…

I think the only way to salvage House of Cards at this point would be to do something really off the wall, like have Frank NOT win reelection. Maybe jump forward a couple years to Frank being out of power and puttering around on the lecture circuit, then follow him as he claws his way back. Maybe have him go back to…

The goofy politics of this show keep me from even momentarily taking it seriously. "You are entitled to nothing!" as a Democratic president's campaign slogan? It's almost as if the writers decided that it would be easier to make Frank a baddie if he were a right-winger like in the U.K. version, and his Democratic…

Well, it would have been equally boring if season three just consisted of the writers teeing up another series of unworthy opponents for Frank and him mowing them down, with snarky asides to the fourth wall. Where could it go? Have Frank take over the world? Then maybe conquer outer space and match wits with the…

Yeah, basically the problem with Claire is that she's so smart, talented, and sexy as all get-out, you wonder why she's with Frank at all. I think, if anything it lies in the Dallas debutante background they keep bringing up with her: She was raised with a really conservative beliefs about how a woman's supposed to…

Mild Spoilers:

I think whoever did the fourth one really wanted to do something like "Blade Runner," and got bummed about drawing "Grease," and just said, "Fuck it. I'm turning Grease into Blade Runner." Inclined as I am to applaud almost any attempt turn "Grease" into something other than "Grease," if the idea was to convey the…

"In a 2012 interview with the Bon fansite MI6 that resurfaced this week…" in a second string filler piece on Yahoo! Hardly the talk of the interwebs this moment. These transgressions I can forgive. But suggesting, even in jest, something as dreadfully unthinkable as a fourth Austin Powers film - this I cannot forgive.

A little disappointed not to see any mention of the Supertrain fan site, which though dated, was clearly done with love: http://nbc_supertrain.tripo… A favorite quote of mine:
"Rhonda Foxx is pictured above in the rail yard located beneath Supertrain's tunnel that allows it exit from New York's Grand Central. … …

It's interesting to note that "Stopover in a Quiet Town" seems to borrow from earlier shows ("Where is Everybody?", "People Are Alike All Over," etc.) because it's also probably the most effective of the Earl Hamner, Jr. stories. Most of his other submissions feel like he's trying too hard to fit what would ultimately…

The Waynes thought the residents of Gotham were going to draw hope from … a state of the art insane asylum? Look, a world populated by arch criminals who eventually take to calling themselves "Penguin" and "Cat Woman" and wearing animal-themed costumes I can buy. But in the real world I bet most people would actually…

I first saw this movie a few years after the West Wing debuted, which is probably good because otherwise I would have spent the duration of that show waiting for Martin Sheen to go all "Stillson" and launch World War III. Come to think of it, that might have been a more compelling last season than the whole Alan…

On the whole not the best movie, but a couple of good turns by supporting actors in minor roles: Frank Whaley, as the guy Hoffa meets in the diner, framing the movie, and "everybody's favorite scumbag," the late J.T. Walsh as Frank Fitzsimmons.

"Black Leather Jackets" is a good example of why Earl Hamner, Jr. is frequently described as the "forgotten" twilight zone writer (apparently, his eight scripts put him fourth overall behind Serling, Beaumont, and Matheson). His folksy themes, while ideally suited to The Waltons, never really meshed well with the…

Not really touched on but a related issue: The ability of many computers in 80's TV shows and movies to store and reproduce high fidelity sound and full color, 24-30 fps video with ease.

Ring-a-Ding Girl has to be one of the weakest episodes in the series. Frankly, I'm surprised it gets such a high grade here. I mean, I know this show is about the supernatural and all, but the premise of the episode is just kind of dumb: It just so happens that a plane carrying a famous actress is flying right over…