Month: August 2006

Reminds you just how much fun 80s ‘hardware’ shows were

7 August 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Ah, Airwolf, Street Hawk: I do like to go on about them, I know. But there’s never really been their like since and they were such an important part of the 80s (for some people anyway).

Here are a couple of YouTube videos to illustrate the fun. The first is from early in Airwolf‘s pilot episode. It’s a live weapons demo principally designed to show off the helicopter to one of the Senators in charge of defence budgets. As always with early Airwolf, the sting is in the tail. It also features the late, great David Hemmings being delightfully evil and English.

Enjoy it – it never got this good again, thanks to CBS wanting the second season onwards to be more family-oriented. I ask you, how do you make a programme about a war helicopter family oriented?

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Another new general knowledge and comedy show

4 August 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Ooh. This one’s from Princess Productions, which makes The Friday Night Project. Can you spot what demographic Channel 4 really is keen on these days?

THE DEADLY KNOWLEDGE SHOW!!

Do You Know Your Blair From Your Blur? We’re looking for funky people to be part of our studio audience for the Channel 4 entertainment quiz show where pop culture meets posh culture.

So, if you know your Paxman from your Pac-Man, join our gorgeous host, TRL’s Dave Berry, and you might get yourself on TV!

We are looking for enthusiastic audience members to join us for an evening of fun at Princess Productions, Unit 316, 3rd Floor Whiteley’s Centre, 151 Queensway, London W2 4SB .

Choose from these dates: afternoons or evenings on Tuesday 15th August then every weekday from Monday 21st August to Friday 1st Sepetmber 2006.

If you would like to join us for this event, then do apply now for tickets by calling 020 8684 3333

UK TV

Review: Time Trumpet

4 August 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Time Trumpet

In the UK: Thursdays, BBC2, 10pm

I had high-ish hopes for this. It comes from the House of Armando Iannucci for one thing. It satirises modern news and televisual trends by pretending to look back on them from the perspective of 2031. It could have been The Day Today of our day.

But it wasn’t. It was kind of funny. It was clever. It made you wonder just how much time they’d spent trawling through the archives for clips they could doctor with CGI. But it wasn’t the side-splittingly funny show I was hoping for.

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Technology

EyeTV for DTT stick

4 August 2006 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

I’ve just bought myself one of these (click on it to see it bigger): EyeTV DTT stick

It’s an EyeTV DTT ‘stick’ which allows you to watch FreeView on your Mac. You just plug it in a USB port, attach an aerial (tiny portable one supplied) and tune it in. You can then schedule your Mac to record the programs to your hard drive, just like Sky+. You can also pause live TV, etc.

Seems pretty cool so far and I’ve already set it to record a few programmes using the EPG. I’m using the portable aerial at the moment, and while it’s pretty good, I can’t get ITV (any channel) or Channel 4. So I’m going to buy myself a cable to plug it into a nearby aerial socket.

I’ll let you know how it works out.