It is even more disappointing because the show “Silicon Valley” was supposed to parody and expose the awful dude-bro culture of that field and how big companies treat lower level employees like shit and there is a ton of gender disparity in big tech. And then the actors on the show ended up emulating the people they…

Half the joy of Columbo is looking for young stars.  The other half is Peter Falk’s portrayal of Columbo.  One of the best characters to ever be on TV.  Watching old Columbo episodes has really helped this past year.

If you count guest roles which later turned into permanent roles, Christopher Lloyd’s brief appearance as the minister at Latke’s wedding on Taxi is an obvious one.

Tom Hanks as the stoner in Taxi, I remember the studio audience giving him a huge round of applause..

[takes notes]

Mine came up a few weeks ago when Jamie Lee Curtis popped up as a wisecracking waitress on an episode of Columbo.

He was also fantastic in Night Shift, that movie turned Michael Keaton into a star, but Henry was so good in it too, playing against type. One of my favorite comedy movies from the 80's!

God, this show is my go-to tonic for a shitty day/week/month/year. Just the first three notes of the theme song make me feel like I’m a kid again, sitting on the carpet in front of the TV.

Once they put Brydon in the host spot, the chemistry between him, David Mitchell and Lee Mack became the engine that keeps that show going.

I can watch WILTY clips for hours, especially when it’s David Mitchell and Lee Mack just yelling at each other (a proper Mitchell rant is a thing of beauty). Like every other British panel show they’ve tried to adapt for the U.S., it’ll probably fail, because British panel shows just aren’t a thing we have a mental…

Hmm, as an American living in London, my experience with WILTY tells me that there’s not enough fireworks to get the yanks interested. It’s entirely personality-driven, just four people, a host, a wood-paneled desk and a set with one color. And they basically just talk and riff on suspicious details in each person’s…

Yeah, I always struggle with how much of that kind of thing to bring in when discussing Landis or someone similar. It’s really horrific, but I don’t necessarily want to turn this into a hit piece. It’s a tricky needle to thread. Especially when I’m aiming for a certain length and don’t want to expend a quarter of my…

Harlem Nights is both super-interesting as a document — Murphy trying to do something a little more serious, working with some of his comic idols, making this lavish period piece — and kind of boring as a movie, because it really doesn’t move at any kind of pace, the plotting is very arbitrary, and it all kinda feels…

hahahaha the dog reaction shots!! Honestly, I’m always grumbling about dog reaction shots but there are SO MANY in that scene that I kinda came back around on it. I was like, OK, Landis genuinely seems to care about catching the dog’s reaction, and there’s kind of a payoff eventually, so fair enough, the dog reaction…

Something I couldn’t really fit in but really wanted to was how Murphy does a take to the camera in EVERY Landis movie and it always makes me laugh. 

A bit more detail on the story of Sun-Tama-Tama (third Tama) because it’s hilarious:

As it happens, last night I watched Coming to America (the original) for the first time. Growing up in the 80's, I was a big Eddie Murphy fan and can probably still recite most of Delirious, but somehow I’d never seen Murphy as Prince Akeem.