Posts Tagged ‘Michael J. Fox’

  
Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Farkakte Film Flashback: It’s Not Personal, It’s Just Business Edition

by Pete Chianca

I swear to God I'm not holding a bag of money behind my backMichael Moore’s latest, Capitalism: A Love Story, opens around the country today, and if the early reviews are any indication, it’s yet another cleverly executed and scathing reminder of how we’re all … wait, let me check my notes … ah, yes — majorly screwed. Taken as a whole, the Moore oeuvre seems dedicated to the concept that before we die we’ll all be laid off, betrayed by our government, shot, burdened by lousy, expensive heath care, and cheated out of our tax dollars and retirement funds, possibly all at once.

Moore’s latest is of course aimed at the business titans of Wall Street who let us have it twice, first by ruining our economy, then by wheeling and dealing the government into ponying up billions in public money so they could get started on ruining it again. I’m sure Capitalism is well executed but no doubt depressing, at least for those of us not on the receiving end of the aforementioned billions. I prefer my cinematic big business to be the fictional kind, where greed may be good but Michael Douglas still goes to white-collar jail at the end, or is at least sexually harassed by Demi Moore. Mrowr!

With that in mind, patch in to my conference call as I review my 300-slide PowerPoint presentation on five random business flicks that deserve the key to the executive washroom.

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Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Caught on Tape: Red Hot Chili Peppers Interview Each Other, 12/6/1984

by Rob Hoffman

I’ve just unearthed a treasure trove.

Then again, maybe not.Red Hot Chili Peppers

Somewhere in my basement, I just found a box of cassette tapes. Not just dubs of albums or promo mix tapes distributed at the New Music Seminars and CMJ conventions I used to attend during the 80s – but some highly unique stuff from my days as both a college radio music director and arts editor at the Georgetown University campus paper.

The tapes say things like “T-Bone Burnett interview.” Or “The dBs.” Or “Interview with Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil.”

You know what? I recall every single one of these interviews.

You see, back in the day, I was pretty aggressive when it came to whatever cool acts came to town. Plus I had the added bonus of representing both Georgetown’s newspaper and radio station. Bands could do the equivalent of killing two birds with one stone.

Never mind that the paper was the secondary one on campus and the station was distributed via carrier current i.e. only on campus as a weak AM feed. Nobody needed to know that.

So I made plenty of friends with record company reps and got them to promise me interviews when one of their bands came to town. Or sometimes I would just attend the concert and see if I could wheedle myself backstage with my tape recorder. (more…)

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Posted in Caught on Tape, Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music | Comments

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

TV on DVD: “Spin City: The Complete Second Season”

by Scott Malchus

51xhsdxgiil_sl500_aa240_Spin City: The Complete Second Season (2009, Shout Factory)
purchase from Amazon: DVD

By its second season, Spin City, ABC’s tightly written workplace sitcom starring Michael J. Fox, had worked out the kinks and developed into one of the finest ensemble comedies of the 1990s. With Fox acting as the center of the show, creators Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence and their crack staff of writers (along with series director Andy Cadiff), were now familiar enough with their talented cast that they were able to let their actors expand their characters and make them more fully realized. While Fox’s character of Deputy Mayor Michael Flaherty continued to woo and romance beautiful women (including Paula Marshall), the other characters’ personal lives were also explored to keep the audiences interested in every aspect of then show.

Once again playing off their strengths, the supporting cast of Spin City came into their own during season two. The rapport and comic timing between Michael Boatman as Carter Heywood, the liberal gay activist, and Alan Ruck as Stuart Bondek, the conservative, womanizing ass, clicked much better and the two of them, playing polar political and sexual opposites, became brilliant comic foils. Richard Kind, having perfected the goofy, dork role on Mad About You, continued to play this type of character to as Press Secretary Paul Lassiter, and in season two received a romantic interest in the strong and wonderful Faith Prince, playing his fiancée, Claudia. Of course, Barry Bostwick, with his mix of arrogance and ignorance continued to shine as the Mayor Randall Winston, and the second season also saw the introduction of Stacy, Mike’s new street smart secretary, played with sass by Jennifer Esposito. Rounding out the cast were Alexander Chaplin as the naïve James, Janelle Cooper as Victoria (now the mayor’s assistant) and Connie Britton (who would go on the great acclaim in television’s Friday Night Lights) as Nikki. (more…)

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Sunday, November 30th, 2008

DVD Review: “Spin City: The Complete Season 1″

by Scott Malchus

Spin City: The Complete Season 1 (Dreamworks/Shout! Factory) (Buy this DVD at Amazon)

The success of any workplace series comes down to casting. If we believe that every character in a show could be our co-worker or friend, then the show should be destined for success. Perhaps the greatest example isThe Mary Tyler Moore Show, which created a real sense of family with the oddballs that supported Moore during her historic show’s run. Since then, countless numbers of sitcoms have tried and failed to capture what Moore’s did so well.

However, Spin City came close in its seven-year run. With a certified television icon, Michael J. Fox, as the show’s center, the producers of Spin City had gold to work with. DreamWorks Television and Shout! Factory have just released the first season of Spin City in a sleek new DVD box set that reminds us of the comic genius of Michael J. Fox and how great network sitcoms used to be.

Created by Gary David Goldberg, who had discovered Fox and guided him to fame on Family Ties, and Bill Lawrence, who would go on to create the beloved Scrubs (which took the visual humor of Spin City a step further), Spin City showed the inner workings of the Mayor’s office in New York City. One of the luxuries of watching a complete season of a television show, especially one in its first season, is seeing it work out the kinks and find its true voice over the course of 13 or 22 episodes. In the case of Spin City, the producers had a bit of a dilemma. Was it a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of the mayor’s office, or was it a work place comedy with romantic inclinations?

As the cast portraying the mayor’s staff gradually revealed how talented they were, it didn’t matter how charming Fox and Carla Gugino (playing his reporter girlfriend Ashley) were together — the laughs came from the interaction of the mayor’s staff and the mayor himself. Listening to the commentary of Goldberg and Lawrence, they express regret that they couldn’t have had both facets of the show carry on. But as you can see by the end of the first season, it was just more interesting to watch the oddball characters in the office.

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