Perhaps with those British sports (fox-hunting? seriously?), but baseball was incredibly working class - in terms of both players and fans. A day at the ballpark was cheap, and it catered to the workers of the big cities in which it grew up. Same was true of both Am. football and basketball. Even back in the '90s, I…

There's always been an element of money, for sure, but the relentless monetization of it now is pretty offputting.

This is a very good point. I get the civic pride that Marah talks about, but I totally don't buy the notion that this is going to somehow fundamentally change Cleveland in some profound way.

I really like sports, grew up watching them and cried like a baby in the fall of '04. Seriously . . . big fat baby tears.

Desperately seeking Lachman?

That was a pretty interesting phenomenon in part for how the show dealt with it. As far as I remember, it was originally a short fan-made series, meant to mess with/creep out viewers of lg15. But once the show got wind of it, they incorporated it into the show (with the fan/creators' permission). It's a good example,…

Even today, the first videos, the ones from the summer of '06, are a lot of fun to watch, even knowing the nature of it all. They really did a fantastic job. And the "story" elements creep in really well. Once things start to go off the rails, it becomes a lot more hit and miss (and the structure of it - all…

Yup, Duel is fantastic.
On any given day, I'd probably prefer to watch it than any post-'90s Spielberg.

Was about to say the same. The steak scene is fantastic ("it defeats its own purpose!"), but that's Jake's first wife, played by Lori Anne Flax.

He also comes across as an incredibly likeable badass in Team of Rivals, which I read this winter.

That would make a lot of sense!

Lean on Me, Can't Hardly Wait

The '70s was the "me decade" - disillusion with the hippie dream led boomers to things like self-help and cocaine (etc.), all in the name of self improvement, fuck the community! It was the stepping stone to pure '80s selfishness.

Also, while it certainly didn't introduce serialized television storytelling, it's probably the first show to get how to integrate eps of the week with the season-long arc in a dramatically satisfying way - which has become a staple of current quality television.

He's doing a fine job on Brian Johnson's material, but he's killing the Bon stuff, which may be why they're breaking out more of that material.

Often, all at the same time.

But somehow Dan Brown got to steal the entire story of Da Vinci Code and a judge was cool with that. Win some, lose some, I guess . . .

That's probably true, but didn't they have a responsibility to vet the whole situation before pressing the albums? TBH, I don't know the intricacies of the biz to know the answer to that.

Totally . . .

I hear ya. It'll be interesting to hear Ocasek's pov, if he ever offers one up.