areacode212

That Hitchcock masterpiece collection looks really good, but will it contain all of the extras from the individual releases? (Tippi Hedren's screen tests, etc..)

The WB TV-on-DVD mail-in rebate is here, for anyone who took advantage of this sale. In the end, I'll have gotten 3 sets for less than $40. Not bad.

Saturday was my first real ROH experience (before that, I had only seen some matches that I downloaded), and yeah...my first impression was similar to Rudo's. The chants interfered with the matches a few times, and I did think that, at some points, the fans were more interested in coming up with "witty" things to chant than they were in the action in the ring. A few wrestlers had to stall a bit at the beginning of their matches, so they could wait for the chants to die down...it was pretty annoying. When the crowd was chanting, "Please come back!" at Gibson, he turned and gave us the "aw, shucks, you guys" shrug, but inside, I wondered if he was thinking, "could you guys just shut the hell up and let me wrestle?". The whole "standing up & clapping after every highspot" routine was pretty bad, too. You just get the feeling that they're trying to say, "look how appreciative and smart we are, as opposed to the ignorant WWE-loving peasants". On the other hand, it's how they have fun at the shows, and it only really bugged me when it got in the way of my enjoying the matches. Plus, it wasn't everybody...just some loud, vocal fans, and I did think some of the chants & crowd reactions were amusing, especially in response to heelish stuff from McGuinness and Prince Nana. It was just overkill at times, and by the second-to-last match, I was pretty irritated (the crowd reaction to Kobashi/Joe was definitely genuine).

This was the first one of these I've listened to. Dangerous A is a pretty good host....I'll be downloading the other ones. Also, now I don't feel like I'm the only one who watched Ghost Whisperer (though even I didn't stick around for the second episode).

Yeah, years of boring WWE TV can do that. I pop in every once in a while during my brief flashes of wrestling fandom or when I feel like reading the Movies/TV folder...in this case it was the Kobashi show that brought me back. I clicked on this thread to see what people thought of Benoit/Regal, which I just finished downloading. I wonder if I'll be able to play this on another computer which doesn't have the license to play it. I have to find out if there's a way of stripping the copy protection.

I use WM Recorder all the time, for a whole bunch of things. This is how I get around the 2 minute limit: 1) First, I got a serial # for the prog. 2) I use ZoneAlarm Pro as my firewall. When WM Recorder first starts up, it'll try to access the internet. Uncheck "Remember this setting", and click "Deny". Then try to record whatever stream you want. ZoneAlarm will pop up again--this time choose "Allow". That's it. The only thing you have to remember is to keep WM Recorder from accessing the internet whenever it starts (it tries to validate the serial #). The free version of ZoneAlarm won't work for doing this anymore--you have to use ZA Pro.

I know you asked for online places, but if there are comic conventions that are held near you, check those out. You can find some nice prices on TPBs, and you can haggle with the dealers for extra savings.

What you say about leftover shit smears is true, but this is why I tend to save pooping for when I'm at home, where I can clean more thoroughly, or shower if necessary (this is rare though). I will say that there are few things in life as satisfying as dropping a nice big one...the "nuggets" (as HBK would call them) don't feel as good.

I don't think they will be...even though those 3 are all FX shows, these sets are all from Warner Bros. The Shield is Fox and Rescue Me is Columbia/Tristar. If you want The Shield, you may want to check your local Gamestop, if you have one. I picked up Shield S2 for $19.99. It was supposedly "used", but the discs were in perfect condition.

Holy fuck...I'm getting Nip/Tuck and the GG sets. Awesome. I'm heading there tomorrow morning.

Ha, is that what happened? As she was walking out, I heard everyone gasp, "OOOOOHHHHH" at something, but I couldn't see anything from where I was standing. Did any of you stay to get an autograph from Kobashi? I considered it, but I'm trying to budget, and didn't feel like shelling out $20. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to go to this show.

It kicked ass and was stiff as hell. Joe's chest was so red by the end of that match. Big "arigato" chant at the end. Bob was right...the New Yorker is an awesome place to see a wrestling card. It was great seeing Kobashi wrestle live in such a small venue. They're moving to Chelsea Piers for the December card. He was pretty funny...he started to do Bret's "I'm the best there is" routine, which prompted a short "We want Bret" chant.

My copy of EW came with a DVD with the Everybody Hates Chris pilot episode on it. I have to say that it was really good--much better than what I was expecting, which was more of a typical sitcom with a smart-ass young Chris Rock making wisecracks, etc. It fits more in the Wonder Years mold, about him growing up with his siblings in Bed-Stuy, with no laugh track. I say give it a try, even if you're pissed that it took over the Smackdown timeslot.

How did Joel Gertner go from being just some ring announcer to the Quintessential Studmuffin?

I found out on DVDTalk, and it ends on 6/25. Too bad it doesn't work on pre-orders, but I suppose their One Night Stand pre-order price is good enough.

I sat down & watched this on UPN syndication (even though I have the DVD) about a year and a half ago, and I remember thinking that it really would make a good introductory episode. It has a lot of cool elements: flashbacks, some nice Angel/Faith parallels, some really tense/exciting moments (Faith coming out of the shadows in Cordy's apartment, the torture scene, the crossbow & gun scenes), and an awesome fight scene. Yeah, you can appreciate Faith's story more if you've been following it all this time, but I think a new viewer would find her intriguing and would want to find out more about her. I do agree that AYKOHYEB is probably the seminal introduction episode.

Don't forget Bad News Brown. Was he the only one back in those days who was so heelish as to go so far as to assault Jack Tunney?

This is a great day for mankind. Anyone else have it yet? I picked up mine from Circuit City for $27.99.

Yep, a DVD should be coming out before the second season starts. Also, Mole--don't worry, I think the post-ANTM slot will be good for VM. Here's a good post explaining why. It's probably the best slot on UPN's schedule for that type of show.

I bought this wireless Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer for about $10 at CompUSA a few months ago--it's probably the same kind Marvin has. It works great, and I've never had any response problems with it. If you can get it for a similar price, I recommend it. The only things I don't like about it are: a) the wheel doesn't "click" when you scroll up & down. It moves smoothly, which makes it a pain in the ass for games (switching weapons, force powers, etc), and for fast-forwarding/rewinding DVDs b) you need to push down extra hard on the middle button (the wheel). It's easy to get used to this, though.

What Placebo posted was a ranking of how much income each show pulls in, not popularity. And yeah, take a look: Girlfriends (a half-hour show) brings in over half of what 2-hour Smackdown brings in, plus there's potential $$ from syndication, etc. Their Thursday night slot is an area for growth and possibly greater ad revenue, and they're unlikely to find that with Smackdown sitting there.

Rudo already mentioned what I was going to say. While Smackdown is still one of UPN's top shows, it had the second-lowest ad rates for all of TV for fall 2004. It just doesn't bring in a lot of money, and UPN probably doesn't see that changing in the near future (i.e., Smackdown is stale and probably won't pick up a lot of new viewers). Like Futon Critic notes, it's probably a smarter move to go with a Thursday block of comedies as counterprogramming against Survivor/OC/CSI/Apprentice.

Lots of IT people use that line...that's what made it so great. It's the all-purpose "leave me alone and stop asking me questions that have nothing to do with my job" line, even when you're being shot at. Anyway, Chloe has been my favorite character on this show since last season, so it was awesome to see her to finally get her moment, complete with dramatic music. She even got the last camera shot of the episode. Nice!

That was the greatest moment in TV history.

I agree that they overdid the slo-mo on Angel. There were times when it was really cool, like when Connor first came back from Quor'Toth and there were a million things going on in the scene. That was good, but then we had seasons 4 & 5 where they felt the need to slo-mo EVERYTHING. Like in "Soul Purpose". I'm like, why the hell am I watching this guy fall on the car in slo-mo? Fight scenes on WB/UPN shows are never going to be as good as the ones in big action movies, but for TV, they were pretty good. Plus, the stunt coordinators gave us some really nice "spots" over the years: Faith smashing Buffy with the glass door in "This Year's Girl", the Connor/Fred/Gunn vamp fight in "Deep Down"...some good stuff there.