River City Rocker

Actually, both shows ran at the same time for over a year. The Smothers Brothers debuted on CBS in 1967, while Laugh-In initially debuted as a one-time only special that fall (becoming a regular series in January 1968). Both the Smothers Brothers and Rowan & Martin would occasionally make gag appearances on each other's programs. The last notable appearance by Tom and Dick on Laugh-In came less than a month before CBS axed their show. -Ben

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In If you've ever watched an episode, forget the dated jokes. Look at the FLOW of the program, with all of the quickie sketches and ancedotes. Doesn't that look frighteningly ahead of its time? It was the first true short-attention span show. -Ben

Remember Booker T's "It's on like neckbone!" catchphrase? I still don't get it... -Ben

I went to Anarchy Rulz in 1999. Before the show, to entertain ourselves, sections of the crowd would chant "You guys suck!" or "We fucked your mom!" to each other. After a minute, we all cheered, and then picked a different section to pick on. Then, the guy on the floor held up that sick "Drop Owen Here" sign, and the whole crowd turned on that one idiot... -Ben

Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow FUCKING WOW!

I skipped it entirely. I did catch a few seconds of what TV Land was doing, though. I thought it was quite clever, although it did seem fake. So, twenty or thirty years from now, when the question "Where were you when the last Friends ever aired?" starts being thrown around, I can say "Well, I watched a dubbed Japanese game show where contestants damn near kill themselves doing crazy stunts on a cable network once known as the Nashville Network". -Ben

I couldn't even count exactly how many times Goldie Hawn used to crack up during her skits or one-liners on Laugh-In. In her case, it was the producers trying to sabotage her by mixing up her cue cards, or writing all sorts of dirty jokes on them. The producers thought Goldie's habit of giggling nervous was cute, so they tried to set her off constantly. There were at least two instances where Goldie lost it bad enough that her castmates actually would throw pages of the script at her. -Ben

*bump!* MST3K is one of the greatest programs of all time. I didn't get into it until after Joel left, yet I was only taping episodes where he hosted. I would go out of my way to not tape or watch anything hosted by Mike Nelson. Later, I started getting my hands on whichever Mike episodes I could when I got bored with my 22 tapes of nothing but Joel as host. I'm the only one I know who still can't finish Mitchell. I own the DVD, and have only watched it once in the three years I've had it. -Ben

I have: Freak Out! Absolutely Free We're Only in it for the Money Over-nite Sensation Apostrophe One Size Fits All Sheik Yerbouti You Are What You Is Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch Strictly Commercial (better mixes on this one than some of the albums). The best Mothers lineup was the original. How could you NOT love Jimmy Carl Black? "Hi, boys and girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black, and I'm the indian of the group!" -Ben

I'm just happy to see Bill Hicks ranked WAY above Denis Leary. -Ben

What in the motherfuck are you smart marks on? I believe he meant Al as a human being, and not judging him solely on his talent, or the music he's released. It's good to know that Al still has time for the fans, and genuinely comes across as a likeable person, instead of turning into a raging egomaniac who throws backstage tantrums over the slightest things, and acts like he's much better than he really is. But really, before his parents' tragic death, has Al really suffered a major setback or tragedy during his career? -Ben

I plan to pick up the For All Time boxset soon, which has all five of his "time" themed records in it, three of which have never been released on CD before. It should be great. -Ben

The song I hate more than any other came out sometime after the first Persian Gulf war in 1991. It's called "Voices That Care". I have some really BAD memories of that song. At our eighth grade prom, the damn disc jockey chose to spin "Voices That Care" six times in a three hour dance. It wasn't bad enough that I actually saw eighth graders rending fucking LIMOS to come to this stupid prom as I was walking in, and they had to play that stupid song SIX times. What's worse, everybody in attendance seemed to really like that song, and even the teachers present were singing along. To add insult to injury, the school thought it was a brilliant idea for the graduating class to sing "Voices That Care" during the ceremony. I chose not to. All this got me were a few laughable threats from the class borderline psychotic nerd and his best friend named Kit Nutt, who proudly informed me that they were going to "kick my BUTT" if I didn't sing "Voices That Care". They caught me at rehearsals standing there not moving my mouth, and were hissing "SING! SIIINNG!" like they had any kind of authority over me. When graduation came, I didn't sing. I didn't get beaten up, though. I do kind of wish that I had gotten in trouble for not singing, so I could've mentioned how sick I was of "Voices That Care". The good thing is, I never heard the song ever again after leaving middle school. -Ben

Murphy Lee. I love that song, but I don't hold it against you. Funny thing was, it was a Murphy Lee song, on a Murphy Lee album, and he gets denigrated to another random rapper. Too bad for him. Did anyone else besides me notice how badly Murphy Lee mispronounces the word "people" in his part of the song (in the "collect so much grass, people thinkin' we mow lawns" line)? -Ben

Benoit and Jericho, definitely. Hey, you could even market a single DVD of matches where they just wrestled one another. Bret Hart? Absolutely. I think you could definitely get (at least) two three-disc sets out of Bret's matches and angles. Bloodbath II. I have a rough idea about what I'd like to see on that one. And I was thinking about the concept of just releasing two or three-disc sets not devoted to any particular wrestler, but they're just collections of really great matches. I was working on a "Greatest Tag Team Matches" compilation with the help of Keith's rants. Whenever I get finished with it, I just might share those ideas. -Ben

Imagine how good that Bret Hart DVD would be-if they ever make one, or two. Imagine how great the next Flair set will be. I'd definitely buy Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho DVDs, too. You could probably issue a decent set with just the matches where they just wrestled each other. -Ben

So far, it's really good, once you get past the blurring during the scratch-logo era (which, I have found, really isn't that objectionable, but still, I'd like to see that problem addressed again in the future). I did notice that the matches that Jesse Ventura did commentary in (Jack-Vader, Foley/Thorton-Bulldogs), Jesse was completely dubbed out, leaving some really awkward, Joey Stylesesque periods of silence, particularly in the tag match, where there are a few instances where McMahon was cut off in mid-sentence. I've found two easter eggs, which may or may not have been common knowledge. But if you're curious, here they are: * Under Chapters on disc 2, highlight Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind, then click left twice to access the first Chef Boyardee commercial Mick made. "Mmmm, BEEFY!!" * Under Extras on disc 2, highlight the Birth of Mr. Socko, and click right twice. You'll be taken to the "Have a Bad Day" skits where Dennis Knight, impersonating Mick, went to the unemployment office after being fired by Triple H. -Ben

You know, that's a great point. It made me think about it: why blur any images on products released and intended for private viewing? But I assume there's some legal reasoning behind blurring on the DVDs, you know, some small print in the settlement. Like I said, unless Vince McMahon wants to do something about it (no blurring the logo on future releases, or even going back to the old block logo and referring to the company as "World Wrestling Federation Entertainment" again), we're more or less stuck with it. -Ben P.S. So far, no easter eggs have been found-yet!

In that case, I suppose the blurring is something that we'll all have to live with for a long time, unless WWE decides to do something about it...and I almost wish they would. By the way, I just bought the Foley set from the Best Buy in Evansville, Indiana. Wasn't it supposed to be released sometime next week? -Ben

I'd also throw on the first disc the Horsemen beatdown of Dusty Rhodes in the parking lot, as well as the Flair-Ricky Morton feud, starting with the confrontation on TBS, Morton's fluke win over Flair at the Omni which led to the dressing room attack, and finally, Morton nearly winning the NWA title from Flair before the Horsemen run in and break Morton's nose. Great stuff! I also raided Keith's archives to find this RF Video comp which has another Flair-Steamboat match. If they can find this oldie, put it on the next Flair comp at all speeds! -Ben

It was Walgreens. They'll be back eventually. Well, I certainly hope so. I stumbled upon a boatload of old WWF DVDs at Walgreens around Thanksgiving last year, but I didn't take advantage of it. When I got some extra money and went back, almost the entire selection of DVDs (not just the WWF ones) had been wiped completely out. Subsequent trips to there, K-Mart, CVS, Wal-Mart, or any other place that I've heard that would sell these DVDs have turned up absolutely nothing. Guess I'll have to settle for used DVDs here and there... -Ben

Actually, I personally call these lists the "Top 500 HARD ROCK Songs". It probably saves a lot of arguing about who does and who doesn't "belong" on these lists, since it's difficult to argue that the majority of these songs aren't "hard rock" to a degree. -Ben

I majored in communications (radio, specifically). So much for that field! Feh. *throws out degree* -Ben

Some people are crazy enough to believe that their friends at school will watch the tape, and NOT contact the authorities. -Ben

K-Mart, eh? Looks like I'll be headed across the Ohio River this weekend to go check that selection out. But knowing my luck, there probably won't be a single WWF/WWE DVD left by the time I get there... -Ben