Man On The Moon
There’s so much going on in this song, both musically and lyrically, yet all of the elements mesh so perfectly that the track never feels busy. Largely a tribute song to Andy Kaufman - the title was later used for the biopic about Kaufman - it also provided an opportunity for Michael Stipe to briefly share his Elvis impersonation.
That “Andy are you goofing on Elvis” line references the belief some held that Kaufman had faked his own death. Like Elvis, it’s safe to say that it’s a myth. There were all those rumors at the DNC that a gap in the final night’s schedule was reserved for a surprise appearance by Beyoncé. My own theory was that Kaufman was going to make his long awaited return at that event. It didn’t happen there, so I now finally believe that Andy Kaufman is actually dead.
This is one of the great highlights of R.E.M.’s catalog. The opening bass line along with Stipe’s quiet reading of the opening lines sets a mellow mood, which gradually rises. By the time the chorus hits, the full band arrangement really kicks in and that is a magnificent instrumental break before the final verse.
Who knows what sort of arguments took place behind the scenes, but I can’t think of many bands that lasted as long as R.E.M. did that publicly presented their sort of unified front. They were a real band of brothers, each of whom had a distinct image, and when Bill Berry decided that he had enough of life on the road, the other 3 members fully supported his decision. Crucially, they didn’t even attempt to replace him. Years later, when it came time to call it a career, it was done without any acrimony. They all appear happy as they move along with their assorted low profile post-R.E.M. projects. Somehow, someway, they found the secret to personal harmony and to post-fame happiness. Good for them. Maybe it all simply comes down to playing Monopoly, 21, checkers and chess.
Reviewing Olympic Sports
Athletics - This is the official name for what we generally refer to as track & field. Not only has it been one of the marquee Olympic sports as long as it has been televised, but it is for all practical purposes the original sport. The very first event in the Ancient Greek Olympics was a foot race. There’s nothing more primal than competing to see who can make it from point A to point B the fastest.
A big part of what makes track & field such an inherently exciting sport is that there are so many different strategies depending on the length of the race. A 100 meter race is simple; reach maximum speed as quickly as you can and then try your best to maintain form until you reach the finish line. In longer races you have to figure out the best way to pace yourself so that you still have something left in the tank for the finish. I’m as slow as molasses, so my running days ended when I was still in grammar school. When I did run, I found it much too hard to hold my instincts back. I could never quite master the skill of learning exactly how fast I needed to go without burning myself out too quickly.
Track & field was in danger of falling behind swimming & gymnastics in the hierarchy, especially following Usain Bolt’s retirement. The meet in Paris was one of the most thrilling that I can remember. The combination of brilliant performances and charismatic performers made for a great combo. In a bit of serendipity, due to logistics of venue availability, in Los Angeles 2028 the standard schedule is going to be flipped. Track will take place in week 1, swimming in week 2. That means the initial spotlight will shine on the track athletes; if most of the Paris stars are still on top of the world 4 years from now, the Games will be off to a great start.
NBC still has a tough time figuring out what to do with the field portion; too often those events are shunted aside with an attitude of “oh yeah, this happened too. We’ll show it if we have time.” There’s usually a good flow at a live track meet; the jumpers & throwers often wait until a race has been completed before they take their turns. A live audience can more easily pay attention to both. That’s not the case on TV. NBC uses that time for replays & interviews so there is little opportunity to switch focus. I sometimes think they’re better off not even bothering - just do the track coverage and run field footage elsewhere. This year they frequently promoted the fact that field was covered in full on Peacock, which is well and good. On NBC proper I would much prefer all or nothing. Either give field the time needed to properly cover the competition, or drop it entirely and farm it out completely to Peacock or to USA. I offer this advice to network executives free of charge. You’re welcome.
Badminton - Every 4 years Mary Carillo’s famous rant about badminton goes viral.
I’m not picking on Carillo; she is a top notch broadcaster and an absolute delight. But what is it about badminton, but not table tennis, that inspires such mockery? I have a few theories. All of us have played both sports, but in general our table tennis games are much more intense. Because of that, we intuitively can put into better perspective how high the level of play is at the highest level. I would also imagine that those of us of a certain age who remember the old ping pong diplomacy with China were already familiar with the rapid pace of the sport.
How many of us have played intense badminton games? I’m honestly not sure if I ever completed a game. It’s always been “the net’s up, let’s play a game, oh the burgers are ready, we’ll finish it up later.” We never finish it up. The other issue is that the shuttlecocks travel faster than 150mph, but the TV setup doesn’t fully convey that sense of speed. It doesn’t look like it’s traveling that fast. I usually take a quick peek at the gold medal matches, but it doesn’t thrill me enough to want to watch more. I would bet that it’s an exciting sport to watch live.
NASCAR Playoff Preview
OK, I’ll make the bold attempt to predict how the playoffs will shake out. Racing is particularly tricky; a poorly timed blown tire could easily ruin a race, if not an entire season. This has also been an unusual season. Similar to the way this year’s baseball season has been playing out, the top drivers have alternated prolonged stretches of dominance with prolonged stretches of “meh” results. As a reminder, the playoff format begins with 16 drivers, all of whom have their points reset equally plus whatever bonus points they have accumulated in the regular season. After each set of 3 races the drivers with the lowest number of points are eliminated, unless he has won one of those 3 races. That leaves 4 drivers remaining for the season finale in Phoenix. Whichever of those 4 finishes highest is the 2024 Cup Champion. Here goes.
Out after race #3: Ryan Briscoe, Harrison Burton, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez. Each of these earned the regular season win they needed to secure a playoff slot, but none have demonstrated the consistent speed required to be legitimate contenders. A series of top 15 finishes won’t cut it.
Out after race #6: Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. Truex is retiring at the end of the season, but based on the season he’s having it’s asking too much to hope for a magical farewell. Gibbs has yet to win a race, so an extended playoff run seems unlikely. Bowman & Logano have both been in serious slumps during the summer; I would be surprised by a rebound for either.
Out after race #9: Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski. This is where it gets trickier to figure out who to eliminate. I could easily swap a couple out, but my final four have all shown better recent momentum. Hamlin looked like a viable championship contender earlier in the season, but in recent weeks everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. The black cloud is still hovering above his head.
Championship 4: Christopher Bell, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick. All 4 have had consistently strong results throughout the season, all 4 have shown the ability to run strong at all different types of tracks, all 4 are viable threats to win at any time. My pick for the Cup champ? I’m going with Reddick.
The List
By now, I’m sure that many of you are aware that earlier this week Rolling Stone dropped their listing of the 100 Best TV Episodes Of All Time. I don’t intend to overly criticize their selections; it’s a Herculean task. A list such as this is more of a conversation starter than anything else. The editors limited it to one episode per show; that avoids needing to include 20 Simpsons episodes - or all 18 episodes of Freaks and Geeks. As for the actual list, a few observations:
I wouldn’t dream of attempting to put something like this together, but if I did chances are very good that I would have come up with the same choice for #1 overall as Rolling Stone did.
It’s even tougher to narrow it down to the representative show from pantheon level series. Even so, I could easily come up with almost a dozen better choices each from Cheers, The Simpsons, or Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In a similar vein, the selections from The Sopranos, Taxi, and Seinfeld are the “obvious” choices. There are still plenty of episodes from each that I would have chosen instead. Similar deal with The Wire and BoJack Horseman. How could anyone possibly narrow either down to only 1 selection?
It’s not the intention of the list, but it could almost serve as a de facto ranking of the top 100 shows as well. So there are some series I was disappointed to see did not make any appearance. No WKRP turkey drop? And even though I felt this show was a bit overrated, the NYPD Blue episode in which Bobby Simone died was an all-time gut punch.
I was pleasantly surprised by the selection from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Most surveys of this type would go with Once More With Feeling, but RS correctly acknowledged The Body. That might be a top 5 choice for me, maybe even top 3. The Doctor Who choice was a great one as well.
There’s a part of me that wants to sit down and rewatch a good number of these episodes. Do I have the time for a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down my pants?
50 Years Ago - Kolchak: The Night Stalker
I was admittedly only 8 years old at the time, but I’ll admit that The Night Stalker often scared the crap out of me. I clearly wasn’t alone; the creator of one of television’s most popular series pointed to this show as a major influence on his work. It only lasted for one season, but that was enough to leave a legacy.
This was a weekly spinoff of a pair of highly rated made for television movies. Darren McGavin starred in the title role, a semi-sleazy newspaper reporter investigating a string of mysterious murders. He soon discovers that it was the work of a vampire. Needless to say, no one believed him. The follow up movie, The Night Strangler, focused on a similar series of unexplained deaths which turned out to also be of supernatural origin. The success of the movies led ABC to greenlight a weekly series in which Kolchak found himself reporting on stories of an often horrifying nature.
In many ways this was similar to any number of TV shows from this era. Kolchak had a distinctive, if not iconic, wardrobe with his seersucker suit and straw hat along with an omnipresent old school camera and tape recorder. He had the grouchy superior who could be counted on screaming “Kolchak!” at least once per episode. You would think that after he was proven right the first dozen times that his editor would give him the benefit of the doubt, but ‘twas not to be.
Each episode was structured with a literal monster of the week. In its brief run it covered almost all of the classic monsters. There was a werewolf, a mummy, a zombie, etc. I wonder what the show would have done had it been a ratings success; in a hypothetical season 3 would there have been a repeat appearance from a werewolf? Maybe a reincarnated Jack the Ripper?
This only lasted one season, but it left an impression on the small audience that it had and was a perfect example of a cult show. The run was too short for syndication, but there was a period when Night Stalker marathons were a staple of the SyFy schedule. More importantly, X-Files creator Chris Carter frequently spoke about how big of an influence this was on his own work. On The X-Files I always preferred the monster of the week episodes to the conspiracy ones, and the Night Stalker DNA was obvious on those shows. Carter even paid back the debt by casting McGavin in a couple of X-Files episodes.
In the end, this was a show too far ahead of its time. It was scary to 8 year old me, but was it really all that scary? 1974 network television could only go so far, and budgets of the time were also pretty limited. Still, this is remembered much more fondly than just about any other show that premiered in this timeframe, even shows considerably much more successful.
Closing Laughs
That should do it for the day and for the week. Thanks as always for joining in on the fun and I will see you all again on Monday. Have a great weekend everybody!