Category Archives: Television

Jul 30 2014
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DVDs, Pop Culture, Television

Top Cops

On the Emmy-winning beat with the detectives in ‘Blue’

NYPD Blue S6

NYPD Blue: Season Six

DVD $34.99 (Shout! Factory)

 

One of TV’s groundbreaking “cop” shows of the 1990s, this Emmy-winning network series ran for 12 successful seasons before finally hanging up its badge in 2005. This collection of all 22 season six episodes, available for the first time on DVD, continues the nitty-gritty, true-to-life adventures of New York police detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) as he and his precinct partners (Kim Delaney, James McDaniel, Gordon Clapp) welcome a new cast mate, former Silver Spoons star Rick Schroder, in his breakthrough “grownup” TV acting role.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Jul 22 2014
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DVDs, Pop Culture, Television

Lights, Action, Wahlbergs

Donnie, Mark, other Wahlbergs star in reality-TV show

Walhburgers_cov

Wahlburgers: The Complete First Season

DVD $19.98 (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)

The A&E reality-TV series about the Wahlbergs, centered around their family-owned restaurant in the Hingham, Mass., shows a domestic, hometown side to the Hollywood lives of actors Mark and Donnie, alongside their cousin Paul and their mom, Alma. Season one episodes includes various eatery escapades and offsite adventures, including visits from Mark’s fiancé, actress Jenny McCarthy, and Joey McIntyre, his former musical mate in the s’80s “boy band” New Kids on the Block.

 

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Jul 18 2014
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Books, Pop Culture, Television

Talk to the Animals

To TV vet Dr. Pol, every creature has a tale

Never Turn Your Back on An Angus CowNever Turn Your Back on an Angus Cow

By Dr. Jan Pol with David Fisher

Hardcover, 288 pages, $15.88 / $10.99 Kindle edition (Gotham Books)

A familiar character to fans of his reality show, The Incredible Dr. Pol on Nat Geo Wild, this no-nonsense, Netherlands-born veterinarian, who’s lived and worked in rural Michigan for the past 40 years, gives a fascinating account of his mission of caring for creatures ranging “from a white mouse to a 2,600-pound pound horse.” Amusing, colorful and heartwarming, it’s a tale any animal lover will enjoy. “Until they start inventing new animals, I think I can say there isn’t a type I haven’t looked into the eyes and wondered how it was feeling,” he writes. With Dr. Pol, every patient has a story—and every animal has a tale, as well as a tail.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Jul 10 2014
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DVDs, History, Humor, Pop Culture, Television

Red, White & Snoopy

Charlie Brown & Co. reanimate American history highlights

This Is America, Charlie Brown

This is America, Charlie Brown

DVD, $26.99 (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)

Originally airing in 1988 as an eight-part CBS miniseries, this delightful animated roundup of recently remastered 24-minute TV specials features a crash course in American history as Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the beloved Peanuts gang sail on the Mayflower, discuss the U.S. Constitution, watch the Wright brothers take wing at Kitty Hawk, dream of space travel, meet several presidents, explore the roots of American music and its composers, and bring other red, white and blue milestones to educational and entertaining cartoon life.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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May 30 2014
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DVDs, Pop Culture, Television

More Lies

Secrets, scandals and surprises abound in ‘Pretty Little Liars’

Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars: The Complete Fourth Season

DVD $59.98 (Warner Home Entertainment)

 

A clique of teenage girls (Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Tyler Blackburn and Lucy Hale) falls apart after the death of their “queen bee” leader. But is she really dead? Who is “Red Coat”? And is that really actress-singer Nia Peeples making a guest appearance? (Yes!) Welcome to the secrets, scandals and surprises in the fictional Pennsylvania hamlet of Rosewood and Pretty Little Liars, the hit ABC Family TV drama based on the popular young-adult fiction series by Sara Shepard. Now you can binge watch all 24 episodes of last season—just before the new one begins June 10—and catch up on all the lies, lies, lies!

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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May 27 2014
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Humor, Movies, Pop Culture, Television

Oh, Magoo!

The theatrical roots of the TV cartoon grumbler-bumbler

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The Mr. Magoo Theatrical Collection 1949-1959

DVD $34.93 (Shout! Factory)

Fans of the Golden Age of cartoons have been waiting for this roundup of all the cartoon “shorts” (made to be shown in movie theaters) starring everyone’s favorite bumbling, grumbling, visually impaired misanthrope. Voiced by actor Jim Backus, Mr. Magoo became an audience favorite who went on to have his own TV series in the 1960s. This generous collection, however, takes him back to his movie-house roots, with 53 original shorts, plus the 1959 animated feature film 1,001 Arabian Nights, two documentaries, an interview with film critic Leonard Maltin, and commentaries.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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May 14 2014
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DVDs, Pop Culture, Television

Life on ‘Mars’

Fan fervor revives cult favorite on big screen

Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars

Blu-ray $29.98, DVD $28.98 (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)

 

Veronica Mars, a young super sleuth played by Kristen Bell, had many a prime-time close call and built up a sizeable TV following before the network bid her farewell in 2007. Earlier this year, however, due to fan clamor, Bell and the show’s creator, Rob Thomas, brought Veronica back in a full-length movie that also featured most of the series’ other original cast members. A selection of Blu-ray features, including a making-of doc, gag reel and on-set shenanigans with the actors and crew, make this home release a must-have for the Veronica faithful.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Apr 30 2014
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Books, History, Pop Culture, Television

British Invasion

Recalling the ’80s ‘new wave’ of bands from across the sea

untitled

Mad World

By Lori Majewski & Jonathan Bernstein

Softcover, 320 pages, $19.95 / Kindle edition $9.99 (Abrams)

 

If you came of age the ’80s, you remember the impact of British “new wave,” as MTV introduced America to the sights and sounds of the synth pop, goth, industrial, electro and punk-alt-rock combinations that came from across the sea—and helped to define a generation. This sprawling, photo-packing oral history, featuring interviews with members of Tears For Fears (the title comes from one of their tunes) Duran Duran, Adam and the Ants, INXS, Simple Minds, A-ha, The Waitresses, Bow Wow Wow and many more acts of the decade, all talking about their music and their time in the spotlight, casts an entertaining, insightful retro glow on one of pop music’s most colorful, anything-goes eras.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Apr 23 2014
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DVDs, Television

The Heat on the ‘Hill’

A royal roundup of the classic ’80s TV series

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Hill Street Blues: The Complete Series

DVD, $199.99 (Shout! Factory)

 

In the early 1980s, there were no smarter, sharper cops on TV than the ones who worked the metropolitan beat of Hill Street, the ones who began each day hearing the encouraging words of Sgt. Esterhaus (Michael Conrad) telling them to “Be careful out there.” This superb, first-time roundup of all 144 acclaimed episodes, which received 26 Emmy Awards during its seven-year network run, includes a bounty of bonus content, including the original 1981 pilot episode, a 24-page commemorative book, commentary by some of the show’s outstanding ensemble cast, writers and creators, and on-set gags and practical jokes.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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Apr 16 2014
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Books, Humor, Movies, Pop Culture, Television

Laugh & Learn

The many lessons between Monty Python’s punch lines

Everything I Ever Needed To Know About___ I Leared From Monty Python

Everything I Ever Needed to Know About ____* I Learned from Monty Python

By Brian Cogan, Ph.D and Jeff Massey, Ph.D

Hardcover, 320 pages ($25.99 Thomas Dunne Books, Kindle edition $11.04)

The authors, two profs at New York’s Molloy College, apply their scholarly skills to a entertaining, engaging deconstruction of the work of classic British satire of iconic comedy troupe, showing how it coursed with complex, nuanced references to history, art, literature, language, religion and a myriad of other “intellectual” contexts. Covering the group’s 1969-1973 TV series onward, it’s sure to delight diehard Python fans. But it’s also a hoot for anyone interested in learning more about one of comedy’s most durable acts, whose subversive pop cultural success spread from television to movies and eventually the Broadway stage.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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