Nirvana's 'Unplugged' Finally Heading To DVD
Nirvana's Nov. 18, 1993, "MTV Unplugged" taping will make its DVD debut Nov. 20 via Universal Music Enterprises. "MTV Unplugged in New York" was released Nov. 1, 1994, on CD, the first Nirvana product to appear following Kurt Cobain's suicide that April.
Like the CD, the DVD will include the songs "Something in the Way" and "Oh Me," which did not appear on the original MTV broadcast. The DVD also sports four tracks from the band's soundcheck and previously unreleased behind-the-scenes footage.
Nirvana's "Unplugged" date is arguably the most famous in the long-running series, as the band eschewed most of its hits in favor of lesser-known album tracks and obscure covers (particularly, three Meat Puppets songs). The live version of "About a Girl" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Modern Rock tally.
Here is the track list for "MTV Unplugged in New York":
"About a Girl"
"Come As You Are"
"Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam"
"The Man Who Sold the World"
"Pennyroyal Tea"
"Dumb"
"Polly"
"On a Plain"
"Something in the Way"
"Plateau"
"Oh Me"
"Lake of Fire"
"All Apologies"
"Where Did You Sleep Last Night"
Leave it to Jerry 'Beaver' Mathers, Tony Dow
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Fifty years after they first appeared on TV as Wally and Theodore "the Beaver" Cleaver on Oct. 4. 1957, Leave It to Beaver stars Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers are still going at it like real brothers.
Discussing the plot of their 1980s reunion series, Still the Beaver, Mathers, 59, recalls that "Wally was doing very well in his architectural business."
"No, no," corrects Dow, 62. "Wally was an attorney. Since I hate attorneys, they made me an attorney."
The two friends laugh, making it clear that they also share another brotherly quality: deep affection.
"Fifty is a milestone, like a wedding anniversary," boasts Mathers, seated next to Dow in the posh TV Land offices where they have come to talk up this weekend's 24-hour 50th anniversary marathon (TV Land, Saturday at 8 p.m. ET/PT).
Mathers, the divorced father of two daughters and a son, just concluded a three-month run in Broadway's Hairspray playing the father, Wilbur. Dow tells Mathers he feels "really bad" that he missed his performance.
"I've been busy," Dow says.
Sounding very much like the Beav, always in awe of his big bro, Mathers prods Dow: "Tell him what you do."
With an aw-shucks sort of humility, Dow reveals he is building luxury condominiums.
"Tell him what else you do," Mathers says. (You can almost hear him say: "Go on, Wally. Tell 'em. Tell 'em.")
Turns out Dow is a sculptor of modern art, and one of his bronze pieces is on display in the backyard garden of their former TV mom, Barbara Billingsley, whose June Cleaver will always be remembered for vacuuming the Cleaver living room in high heels and pearls.
Dow, now a grandfather, and his wife, Lauren, live close to Billingsley. "I talk to her quite a bit," he says. "We have dinner once a month or so."
"She was singing at my mom's 80th birthday party about three months ago," Mathers pipes in. "It was the night before I left for Broadway."
Calling from her home in Los Angeles, Billingsley, her voice quivering just a bit, still sounds like a proud mama at age 91.
"They were always good kids," she says of her TV sons. "Tony had an exhibit of his artwork and sold 18 pieces. Pretty darn good, isn't it?"
Not leaving Mathers out, she adds: "Jerry told me it had been a dream of his always to be able to go to New York and be in a Broadway show. So all we have to do is decide what we want to do. You have to have a dream."
Ten years ago, a big-screen Beaver remake was produced, and only Billingsley accepted an invitation to cameo. (TV dad Hugh Beaumont died in 1982.)
"Tony and Jerry didn't want to be in it," Billingsley says. "They were crazy. But it really didn't turn out very good."
The two also turned down numerous celebrity reality show offers, Mathers says. "They thought they could throw more money at us and have us do it, but we said, 'No, it's not about that.' When you denigrate (Beaver) in any way, it's not worth it."
"I think it depreciated the value of (the brand)," agrees Dow, who even dodged an opportunity to direct the film.
Says Mathers: "There were a lot of inneundos and such. And the Eddie Haskell character was more sexual than anything else."
Funny enough, all these years later, the original Eddie Haskell, Ken Osmond, is still in the thick of things. He has filed a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit seeking unpaid royalties from the Screen Actors Guild.
"This suit is on behalf of all actors," Osmond, 64, says in an e-mail. "SAG should have paid this money out that it has been collecting for over 11 years."
Asked about Osmond's lawsuit, Dow groans and defends Osmond just as Wally always stood up for troublemaker Eddie: "I spoke to Ken, and I doubt it was his idea."
Global laying off 200 across Canada
Global Television is cutting 200 jobs across Canada as it develops new "state of the art" broadcast centres in four cities, CanWest announced on Thursday.
The company said the centres, to be located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto, will use the latest in broadcast technology. It will also mean local news programs can immediately begin the transition to high definition, CanWest MediaWorks Inc. said.
Although CanWest is adding 50 positions as part of the process, it will lose 250 jobs, meaning a net loss of 200.
Across the Maritimes, 30 positions in Halifax and 11 in New Brunswick are being cut.
Network employees in Halifax said they were shocked by the news.
"It came as a complete surprise. There was no warning," said Paul Saulnier, a union leader with CEP and a technical director who's losing his job.
The layoffs take effect next spring around the time the first centre is planned to be opened in Vancouver. The other three are expected to be operational over the next 18 months.
Record companies win music sharing trial
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — The recording industry won a key fight Thursday against illegal music downloading when a federal jury found a Minnesota woman shared copyrighted music online and levied $220,000 in damages against her.
Record companies have filed some 26,000 lawsuits since 2003 over file-sharing, which has hurt sales because it allows people to get music for free instead of paying for recordings in stores.
This was the first such case to go to trial. Many other defendants have settled by paying the companies a few thousand dollars.
The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. They had alleged she shared 1,702 songs in all.
The companies accused Thomas, 30, of Brainerd, of offering the songs online through a Kazaa file-sharing account. She denied wrongdoing and testified that she didn't have a Kazaa account.
During the three-day trial, the record companies presented evidence they said showed the copyrighted songs were offered by a Kazaa user under the name "tereastarr."
Their witnesses, including officials from an Internet provider and a security firm, testified that the Internet address used by "tereastarr" belonged to Thomas.