Small-Screen 66: #65: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys / Xena: Warrior Princess (Syndicated, 1995-99 / 1995-2001) In my “Film Favorites” countdown, I mentioned that 1998’s Merlin introduced me to the live-action fantasy genre. In retrospect, that’s not entirely true. Today I’ll be addressing a pair of twin series which predated Merlin by several years, and which…
Small-Screen 66 – #66: “American Inventor” (ABC, 2006-07) We kick off the countdown with a short-lived reality series which, true to its title, featured American inventors vying for a chance to attract entrepreneurial interest, further develop their creations, and ultimately score a million-dollar production deal. In each episode of American Inventor, an assortment of inventors…
Note: This introduction was written in April 2014, and the first 11 posts were written shortly thereafter. Some inconsistencies may still be present with regard to dates and season information. Additionally, I have seen quite a few more shows since I composed the list…I’ll follow-up with some up-to-date “honorable mentions” at the end of the…
Brian here! In 2013, I counted down my 100 Film Favorites. I first wrote the posts over at Brian Terrill Movie Night, and then debuted new-and-improved versions when I transplanted the series to EarnThis. Last year, I began a sequel series, looking at a few of my favorite TV shows. The “Small-Screen 66” will be…
Our resident countdownist and thing-liker Brian is not only a staff writer for Earn This and a Facebook blogger, but also hosts a public access horror host show called Count Gauntly’s Horrors from the Public Domain (episodes of which are also posted online). This past month, I began putting together a fan site for the show, which you…
CHRISTMAS CLASSIC COUNTDOWN #1 – “Holidays Are Coming” Yes, friends and neighbors, the BTMN Christmas Classic Countdown is back…and off to a late start from day 1. I hope you can overlook my tardiness and still enjoy the month to come, as I feature 25 songs and poems from Christmas films and television specials throughout…
Oof. That was a slog. HIMYM Season 8 commits many cardinal sins for a sitcom, from forcing a relationship (Robin and Barney), to selling out its characters for cheap jokes (many times; but esp. Barney as a womanizing d-bag), to ridiculous, unbelievable twists (Barney pulling a several month ruse on Robin, then getting engaged to…
No show will ever impact me the way that the US version of The Office did. It was the show that taught me to love television as an entertainment medium, and it remains one of my favorite shows of all time. I grew up watching cartoons and multi-camera sitcoms, so when my friend Tyler (who…
Well that was a step down from Season 6. Not an outright disaster… just a bastion of mediocrity. Definitely a step down. First, the good: As expected, giving Neil Patrick Harris some dramatic material to work with gives the show great moments. Both his relationships — with soft-hearted Nora or, more effectively, with silver-tongued stripper…
As the first original series produced by Netflix, House of Cards has provoked a lot of discussion about the future of television creation, the ideal method and timing for releasing episodes, and the increasing number of movie stars jumping to the small screen. That’s all well and good…but is the show ultimately effective? The answer,…