The Couch Potato Report - November 8th, 2005
This week The Couch Potato Report features a movie remake, a TV show spinoff, and Live 8 on DVD.
The first movie I ever saw in a theatre was WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, a film based on Roald Dahl's book CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
Admittedly, I don't remember much about my first cinematic experience, but I will never forget the film.
Gene Wilder was brilliant as the title character, and the sights and sounds that fed my senses inside the chocolate factory were overwhelming!
To this day, when I hear the words "come with me, and you'll be, In a land of pure imagination," I am instantly taken back inside Willy Wonka's world.
And I love it there!!!
I love it there so much, that when I heard that director Tim Burton was going to do his own version of the film, it didn't bother me. I was also okay with Johnny Depp taking over as Willy Wonka.
To their credit, Burton and Depp did a great job and there are many things to enjoy in their film.
However, I like my original version better.
That isn't necessarily because one version is better than the other, after all it is Roald Dahl's original story that is the basis for both, but I still prefer the original.
And I bet thirty-four years from now, when they inevitably make another film version, there will be someone who proclaims the 2005 version to be the preferred one because it was the first film they saw.
Whichever film you prefer, the story will always be the same unique tale of Charlie Bucket, a poor boy who is fortunate enough to receive one of only five golden tickets that grant the holder exclusive entry into recluse Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, and they will get to experience the wonders with.
Once inside, due to the winners' unfortunate personality traits, they eventually disappear until only one ticket holder remains.
That person is in store for a wonderful gift, if he can accept it.
And of course, if you haven't read the book, or seen either movie, I don't want to give anything away.
However, the book and the newest film are called CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
But I digress.
It might not be my preferred version of this classic story, but Depp and Burton's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY is very entertaining. Specifically, Depp does an incredible job playing a very, very unlikable character. His Wonka is actually very mean at times, but in a good way.
I say just think of this as a guilty pleasure and enjoy it.
Another guilty pleasure this week is the DVD set for A DIFFERENT WORLD - SEASON ONE.
IN 1987 the show debuted as a spin off of THE COSBY SHOW. Daughter Denise was sent off to college to find out that there was "a different world" awaiting her outside the Huxtable house.
In addition to Lisa Bonet as Denise, this first season of the show stars the young, and always beautiful, Marisa Tomei, who would eventually go on to win an Academy Award for her work in MY COUSIN VINNY.
Denise, Maggie, Whitley, Dwayne Wayne, Ron. They are all still attending Hillman College on this new 4-DVD box set.
Another 4 disc box set that is now available is the LIVE 8 BOX SET.
On July 2nd some of the biggest names in the music industry- including Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey, Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Adams, Black eyed Peas, Jet, Elton John, The Who, Sting, Paul McCartney, U2 and a re-formed Pink Floyd - took part in a series of concerts around the world. Two decades after he gave the world LIVE AID Bob Geldof staged an even more ambitious series of continent-spanning concerts dedicated to raising funds and public consciousness about international debt relief.
This Box Set focuses on the two biggest concerts that took place in London and Philadelphia. Sadly, even though there were a series of shows there is very little from them in this set.
That is the bad, but there is plenty of good on the LIVE 8 BOX SET. In addition to the concerts themselves there is also a backstage documentary and the entire performance from Pink Floyd and their pre-concert rehearsal.
Now if you are interested in the individual concert DVDs from Toronto, Paris, Rome or Berlin, they are also available as single discs.
However it is the Box Set that is most worthy of your time.
Plus, royalties from sales of the set will go to the Band Aid Trust for the relief of hunger and poverty in Africa.
From LIVE 8, we go now to this week's "leftovers."
Up first is the superb 2001 TV show UNDECLARED about Steve Karp and his fellow freshman dorm-mates.
They are all about to embark on one the greatest experiences of their lives...unfortunately for Steve, the girl he slept with last night has a boyfriend, and his lonely and recently divorced father is tagging along for the ride.
If you were a fan of the under appreciated FREAKS AND GEEKS then you will enjoy the humour and honesty that is front and centre in UNDECLARED.
And now UNDECLARED- THE COMPLETE SERIES is now available in an incredible 4-disc box set with an array of extras.
I declare that I love UNDECLARED, and I am quite pleased that I now own THE COMPLETE SERIES on DVD.
I am just as pleased that I now own a movie version of Douglas Adams' classic book THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.
After almost twenty years development THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY was finally turned into a movie this year.
For those unfamiliar with the story, everyman Arthur Dent wakes up one morning to discover that the entire planet of Earth is about to be destroyed for an interplanetary bypass.
Dent is saved by his best friend, and alien-in-disguise Ford Prefect and that sets the stage for a series of interesting and goofy trips across the galaxy, accompanied - of course - by the trusty Hitchhiker's Guide.
Many of my friends revere Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" book, and the BBC television series. Many of them were subsequently disappointed in this film adaptation.
But I enjoyed it. The cast seems to be having a good time, and the result is a fun, breezy movie that is a treat to watch.
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY movie might not be as good as the book, or the series, but it is an entertaining film nonetheless!
And it is available now at a store near you, along with CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, A DIFFERENT WORLD - SEASON ONE, the LIVE 8 BOX SET and UNDECLARED.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
The funny film MADAGASCAR features four zoo animals who end us shipwrecked outside of their friendly confines.
SCRUBS - SEASON TWO is the 3-disc box set with all of the 22 hilarious episodes from SCRUBS sensational second season.
THE SKELETON KEY is the title and the item that reveals the secrets of an old mansion.
And our "Leftover" is the 2005 version of CRASH. In this exceptional film several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters.
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next week on The Couch!
The Top Selling TV Shows on DVD
IN case you are curious, or just love useless facts, here they are!
Rank Title Units sold in millions Revenue in millions
1. Chappelle's Show: Season 1 Uncensored 3.68 $95.6
2. Family Guy, Volume 1 3.21 $120.4
3. The Simpsons: The Complete First Season 2.96 $110.8
4. Seinfeld First and Second Seasons 2.55 $95.6
5. Chappelle's Show: Season 2 Uncensored 2.51 $94.3
6. Band of Brothers 2.25 $180.2
7. Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell 2.13 $25.5
8. Sex and the City: The Complete First Season 2.07 $77.5
9. Family Guy Volume 2 2.06 $53.6
10. The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season2.03 $76.1M
Source: Home Media Retailing through Oct. 31
NEW CD RELEASES FOR NOVEMBER 8, 2005
The Alchemist The Instrumentals (Koch)
Lotte Anker, Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver Triptych (Leo)
Appareil Judas Kiss (Hit Thing)
Atomic Betty Atomic Betty (Koch)
AZ AWOL - Version 1.5 (Koch)
Bell Orchestre (w/members of Arcade Fire) Recording a Tape the Color of the Light (Rough Trade)
Brave Combo Holidays (Rounder)
Thomas Brinkmann Lucky Hands (MaxErnst)
Kate Bush Aeriel (two CDs) (Columbia)
Sylvain Chauveau & Ensemble Nocturne Down to the Bone (An Acoustic Tribute to Depeche Mode) (DSA)
Kenny Chesney The Road and the Radio (BNA)
Diane Cluck Countless Times (Touch and Go)
Comet Gain City Fallen Leaves (Kill Rock Stars)
D4L Down for Life (Asylum/Atlantic)
The Dansettes Oh My! EP (Hammondbeat)
The Dials Flex Time (Latest Flame)
Neil Diamond 12 Songs (formerly self-titled; produced by Rick Rubin) (Columbia)
DJ Morpheus I Can't Live Without My Radio (Tigersushi)
Dogs of Winter Cut Down to the Quick EP (Exotic)
The Dolls The Dolls (Huume)
Paul Duncan Be Careful What You Call Home (Hometapes)
Fenix TX Purple Reign in Blood - Live (includes b-sides, previously unreleased songs and covers) (Drive-Thru)
Floetry Flo'Ology (guest Common) (Geffen)
Robert Fripp Love Cannot Bear (Innerknot)
Peter Gallagher (actor from Fox's The O.C.) 7 Days in Memphis (covers of Stax Records soul classics; w/Steve Cropper, Betty Wright and members of Joss Stone's band) (Epic)
Ghost Writers Do You Believe in Ghosts? (Heavy Hitta)
Glass Joe Glacious (Felonious)
GREATDAYFORUP Flores de Sangre (Small Stone)
Grizzly Bear Horn of Plenty (two CDs; re-release of 2004 album w/bonus remixes) (Kanine)
Masashi Harada/Mat Maneri The Soul with Longing for Dim Hills (Leo)
Harvey Danger Cream and Bastards Rise EP (Kill Rock Stars)
Headlights The Enemies EP (re-release of 2004 EP) (Polyvinyl)
Hella Concentration Face/Homeboy (CD/DVD combo) (Kill Rock Stars)
Il Divo The Il Divo Gift Pack (Columbia)
Jarboe The Men (two CDs; duets w/ members of Low, the Bad Seeds, Legendary Pink Dots, Bauhaus, Ministry and more) (Atavistic)
Knut Terraformer (Hydra Head)
Cyndi Lauper The Body Acoustic (w/Sarah McLaughlin, Shaggy, Jeff Beck, Ani DiFranco and more; new versions of classics plus two brand-new songs) (Epic)
Lil' Romeo Romeo! TV Show (The Season) (soundtrack to Nickelodean show) (Koch)
The Fil Lorenz Soul-tet Stinky Stinky EP (Hammondbeat)
The Lounge Art Ensemble Music for Moderns (Leo)
Harry Manx Mantras for Madmen (Dog My Cat)
The Mars Volta Scabdates (live album from 2003-2005 tours) (GSL/Universal)
The No Neck Blues Band Qvaris (Kill Rock Stars)
Novatone (ex-members of Pearl Jam, Green Apple Quickstep and Harvey Danger) Time Can't Wait (Wax Orchard)
Mark O'Leary/Tomasz Stanko/Billy Hart Levitation (Leo)
The Primeridian Da All Nighta (Touch and Go)
The Rah Bras WHOHM (Lovitt)
Relient K Apathetic EP (Capitol)
Reverend Glasseye Our Lady of the Broken Spine (Music for Cats)
Ruts DC Meets Mad Professor Rhythm Collision Vol. 1 (Echo Beach)
Sheek Louch (of the Lox) After Taxes (Koch)
The Tah-Dahs (w/ex-Polyphonic Spree's Roy Ivey) Le Fun (Undeniable)
Tape Rideau (Hapna)
Tarantella (ex-members of 16 Horsepower and Blood Axis) Tarantella de La Morte (Alternative Tentacles)
Tarantula A.D. Book of Sand (Hollywood)
These Green Eyes House of Glass (Martyr)
The Marshall Tucker Band Carolina Christmas (featuring all surviving members of original line-up; includes standards and new songs) (Shout! Factory/Ramblin' Records)
Twista The Day After (Chopped & Screwed) (Atlantic)
Steve Tyrell Quite Frank: The Songs of Sinatra (Hollywood)
Pep Ventura The Environmental Sounds of Crawford Texas (Koch Nashville)
The Very Foundation Small Reserves (guest members of the Decemberists and Stockholm Syndrome) (Velvatonic)
Western Addiction Cognicide (Fat Wreck Chords)
Windy & Carl The Dream House/Dedications to Flea (two CDs; includes rare, limited-edition EP) (Kranky)
Wolf, Coleman, Mejer, Unternahrer Momentum 4: Rising Fall (Leo)
Young Quon Doin' It Movin' (B-Storm Enterprises)
Zu The Way of the Animal Powers (Xeng)
Zu vs. Mats Gustafsson How to Raise an Ox (Atavistic)
VA Asian Lounge (w/Nitin Sawhey, Deepak Chopra and more) (Putumayo)
VA Big Boi Presents...Got That Purp? Vol. 2 (w/Goodie Mob, Bubba Sparxxx, Killer Mike, Sleepy Brown and more) (Purple Ribbon/Virgin)
VA Brownswood USA: Gilles Peterson Digs America (new and rare soul, funk and jazz tunes from the DJ's personal collection) (Luv N' Haight/Ubiquity)
VA Hip Hop Helps: After the Storm - The Rap Compilation for Hurricane Relief (w/new tracks by Young Buck, Lil Flip, Paul Wall, Yo Gotti and more) (Hip Hop Helps)
VA SpongeBob Rocks (BMG Heritage)
VA Stand-ins for DeciBels: A Tribute to the dB's (w/Don Dixon and members of Hootie and the Blowfish, the Smithereens, Brian Wilson's band and more) (Paisley Pop)
VA Thrasher Magazine Presents: Skate Rock Vol. 12 - Eat the Flag (DualDisc; w/the Alkaline Trio, Turbonegro and more) (Volcom Entertainment)
OST Beauty and the Beast: Of Love and Hope (TV show) (Rykodisc)
OST Cronicas (John Leguizamo/Alfred Molina thriller) (Palm Pictures)
OST Doom (score by Clint Mansell) (Varèse Sarabande)
OST Duma (score by John Debney and George Acogny) (Varèse Sarabande)
OST Firefly (score by Greg Edmonson) (Varèse Sarabande)
OST Get Rich or Die Tryin' (50 Cent's biographical film; w/first single, "Window Shopper" and songs by Nate Dogg, Mase, M.O.P. and more; original score by Quincy Jones) (Interscope)
OST Smallville: The Metropolis Mix (WB TV show; w/the Dandy Warhols, Depeche Mode, Stereophonics and more) (Hollywood)
OST Water (score by Mychael Danna) (Varèse Sarabande)
DVD Drive-Thru Records, Volume III (Drive-Thru)
DVD Reefer Madness - The Movie Musical (inspired by classic 1936 film; w/Neve Campbell, Alan Cumming and more) (Showtime)
DVD 30 Odd Foot of Grunts featuring Russell Crowe Soundstage Presents (guest Kris Kristofferson) (Koch)
DVD 50 Cent Refuse to Die (documentary) (New Line)
DVD Coheed & Cambria Live @ Starland Ballroom (Columbia)
DVD The Charlie Daniels Band Live (Koch Nashville)
DVD Sage Francis Life Is Easy (live performances w/interviews and behind-the-scenes footage) (Epitaph)
DVD Hall & Oates Our Kind of Soul Live (live performance w/bonus acoustic tracks and interview) (Image)
DVD Hellogoodbye OMG HGB DVD ROTFL (w/music videos, interviews, performance footage and more) (Drive Thru)
DVD Ute Lemper Blood & Feathers - Live from the Café Carlyle (w/two bonus tracks not included on CD version) (Koch)
DVD VA Live 8 (four DVDs) (Capitol/EMI)
SHE’S A SHUE-IN
New Line has tapped Elisabeth Shue to star opposite Jim Carrey on thriller "The Number 23," directed by Joel Schumacher.
Shue's most recent credits are "Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story" and "Hide and Seek."
Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson of Contrafilm will produce the pic, written by Fernley Phillips. Carrey will portray a man who becomes obsessed and haunted upon reading a book that seems to be about his life but ends with a murder. The number 23 is woven throughout the plot.
New Line's Richard Brener, Keith Goldberg and production prexy Toby Emmerich oversee the project for the studio. Brooklyn Weaver, who manages the writer, is exec producing.
Cruise Control Shifts Gears
Tom Cruise is "restructuring."
Hollywood's leading leading man has dumped sister Lee Anne De Vette as his publicist and enlisted power publicity firm Rogers & Cowan.
The moves come in the wake of Cruise's endless summer in which he talked up War of the Worlds, vitamins and exercise, and Katie Holmes--not necessarily in that order.
In the tradition of Hollywood divorces, the Rogers & Cowan-for-De Vette swap was announced on Friday. And in the tradition of press releases about Hollywood divorces, the statement accentuated the positive.
Technically, the release wasn't about De Vette's dumping. Rather, it was about her being tapped to "exclusively oversee the day to day operations of Tom Cruise's philanthropic activities."
Cruise, 43, praised De Vette for having done a "wonderful job" as his personal publicist. De Vette, for her part, was "thrilled" with her new duties. There was no mention of Cruise and De Vette choosing to remain friends, but it was understood they would remain siblings.
As part of Cruise's staff "restructuring," as the statement put it, Rogers & Cowan also will handle publicity for the star's production shingle, Cruise-Wagner Productions. The company's upcoming projects include Mission: Impossible 3, due out next summer.
Rogers & Cowan, PR home to stars such as John Travolta, said on Monday it was not representing Holmes. Cruise's with-child fiancée recently ditched her own longtime publicist, Leslie Sloane, for De Vette.
De Vette succeeded Pat Kingsley as Cruise's publicist last year. Under Kingsley, Cruise cemented his status as the world's top movie star. With De Vette, Cruise enjoyed his biggest box-office hit ever (War of the Worlds) and suffered his worst publicity ever.
A recent report by Genius Insight, a New York-based marketing and research firm, found that Cruise's likeability sunk among 13- to 49-year-olds as the actor jumped on Oprah Winfrey's couch to declare his love for Holmes, took Matt Lauer to task for being "glib," prescribed vitamins and exercise for Brooke Shields and other women coping with postpartum depression, and generally became an outspoken advocate for Scientology. Per the study, Cruise went from the 11th most liked celebrity in the spring, to the 197th most liked celebrity in the summer. Worse, he joined David Spade, Pauly Shore and Tom Green as one of the five most polarizing stars. (Ashton Kutcher rounded out the group.)
To Ann Gabriel, a public relations expert who testified at Michael Jackson's molestation trial about the PR debacle the singer faced in the wake of the 2003 Martin Bashir documentary, Living with Michael Jackson, Cruise's summer was a 15 on the PR Disaster Scale of 1-10, with 10 supposedly being the most disastrous. (On the stand, she said Jackson's Bashir problem rated a 25.)
"I think it was off the scale," Gabriel said of Cruise. "I think if he's truly happy with his life there were probably some ways he could have better chosen to portray his newfound happiness."
Gabriel, who briefly worked for Jackson in 2003, said Cruise and the pop star are similar in that both lost touch with the public.
"I'm sure Michael didn't perceive his actions would be scrutinized the way they were or possibly misinterpreted," Gabriel said. "And I don't believe Tom Cruise believed his comments about postpartum depression would be as scrutinized."
Cruise's publicity firm shakeup is a sign to Gabriel, for one, that "he understands that he may have overstepped some of those boundaries."
In short, maybe next time sit on the couch.
NBC, CBS to offer shows on demand for 99 cents
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NBC and CBS unveiled separate plans on Monday to make some of their hottest prime-time shows available for viewers to watch at their leisure -- without commercials -- for 99 cents an episode, throwing open the door to "on-demand" television.
The back-to-back announcements from NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., and Viacom Inc.-owned CBS, came weeks after Walt Disney Co.'s ABC began offering commercial-free Internet downloads of its biggest hits, "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," for $1.99 a piece.
The two latest deals add CBS and NBC shows such as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" to the mix of programs networks are clamoring to deliver outside conventional broadcasts.
All three ventures highlight growing efforts by the major commercial networks to shake up "old media" models and expand their avenues of distribution.
On-demand viewing -- enabling audiences to order up shows when they feel like watching instead of according to a preset program schedule -- has been commonplace on pay-cable networks for some time.
A number of broadcasters have dabbled in this area lately, and personal digital recorders such as TiVo Inc.'s popular device already allow viewers to record and play back their favorite shows while skipping through commercials.
But the NBC and CBS ventures are the first to give viewers access to several prime-time broadcast offerings on a next-day, on-demand basis through their television sets, as opposed to a personal computer or portable digital device like iPod. And viewers do not record the shows themselves.
Both services launch early next year, with NBC programs distributed through satellite broadcaster DirecTV Group and CBS via cable giant Comcast Corp..
"This has the chance to make our networks even stronger," NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker told Reuters. "It provides more exposure to the shows and gives the viewer the ability to watch the episodes on their own timetable."
NBC narrowly beat CBS to the punch by announcing its tie-in first. Under its plan, select shows from NBC Universal's flagship network, NBC, and its cable networks will be made available for on-demand viewing to homes equipped with a new DirecTV digital video recorder (DVR).
NBC's initial offerings will include the two spinoffs of its "Law & Order" franchise -- "SVU" and "Criminal Intent," as well as workplace comedy "The Office" and sea monster thriller "Surface." Two cable shows also will be part of the mix -- USA Network's "Monk" and Si Fi channel's "Battlestar Galactica."
Hours after those shows first air on the network each week, they will be "pushed" to DirecTV Plus DVRs, where they will be stored digitally and available the next morning for customers to select and play at their convenience for 99 cents.
The DVR devices can be obtained by DirecTV subscribers from retail outlets for free after a $100 mail-in rebate.
The CBS venture will initially make four of the network's biggest prime-time hits -- "CSI," "NCIS," "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" -- available to Comcast digital cable customers in markets served by CBS-owned TV stations. Those areas include Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Baltimore and some outlying suburbs of New York City.
Comcast already offers digital cable customers some 3,800 on-demand titles, mostly movies, children's shows, sports and music, at no extra charge. Comcast has logged more than 1 billion program views this year, as of last month.
Like NBC's shows, CBS on-demand programs will be sold for 99 cents per episode, the same price online music sites typically charge for downloads of a single song.
In October, Disney began offering next-day Internet downloads of its biggest ABC hits, "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," and some other shows for $1.99 per episode via Apple Computer Inc.'s online iTunes music store.
Author Albom tapped for 'Nightline' finale
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - For his last "Nightline" on November 22, ABC's Ted Koppel won't take a comprehensive look back at his career, but will instead feature an interview with "Tuesdays With Morrie" author Mitch Albom talking about one of Koppel's favorite interview subjects, Morrie Schwartz.
"Nightline" executive producer Tom Bettag said Friday that there wouldn't be a collection of Koppel's "greatest hits" during that last show. Instead, it will be an interview with Albom interspersed with clips from interviews Koppel did with the college professor in 1995, when Schwartz was dying of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
"It's Ted and Mitch talking about what Morrie taught them and intercut with the best of Morrie," Bettag said. The interview was done several months ago; it's still not clear how long Koppel's final "Nightline" will last.
"We can have more than a half-hour. I'm not sure we'll take it. What we want to do is do it right," Bettag said. "It's not the length, it's nailing it just right."
It was Koppel's conversations with Schwartz that led Albom, a sportswriter and Detroit Free Press columnist, into getting back in touch with his mentor, who taught history at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., when Albom attended. That reconnection -- and Schwartz's lessons about life and grace in the face of death -- led to the 1997 best-seller and later an ABC movie.
Bettag said that some of Koppel's favorite interviews had always been his shows with Schwartz, which "Nightline" aired in three separate installments in March, May and October 1995. Schwartz died November 4, 1995.
Bettag and Koppel were adamant about not having a retrospective of his years on the show, where his interview subjects have ranged from Henry Kissinger, Desmond Tutu and Kermit the Frog to people dying of AIDS, soldiers in the war in Iraq and the people in the path of Hurricane Katrina.
"The notion of Ted Koppel coming on and saying, 'Here's my greatest hits,' doesn't feel right," Bettag said. "This is a retrospective. It's not talking about Ted, it's talking about someone who Ted admires."