Eric's Eddyfications

How great is HULU?

From what I can tell so far... hulu.com is pretty great. The new youtube-ish website offers ad-sponsored videoclips from television shows, movies, commercials, sports, you name it. It's not like youtube in that it's all protected content from the original sources, so people are getting paid (the writer's strike made sure of that).

But it is like youtube, in that it's user friendly and much more interactive. For example, you can embed entire episodes, entire films onto your own website via hulu.com - but if you want to clip it - you can do that too. It's very easy and ridiculously cool. Much more interesting to me than facebook. I mean, where else can I show you this single piece of comedy from THE OFFICE? (I edited the clip myself, and after it runs, it gives you the user options for checking out more. Very cool. Me likey. You too?

Heroes is BACK

There's nothing like the new fall season, when new shows try to get you to watch and old favorites return from their dormancy.

Heroes is on tonight. Brand new.

I'm so glad that they're coming right out with the new shows and we don't have any of this waiting for new ones going into October and November. I'm really looking forward to talking about this one, once it airs.

That's right Tuesday morning meetings. Be prepared, watch the show so we don't have to keep quiet on it...

Daryl Hall and the Flight

Just caught the latest episode of Flight of the Conchords, a comedy music series about a couple of New Zealand musicians. The series was very promising in the first three or four episodes but has tapered off a bit in the last few weeks in both quality and funniness. Seems like they have put their best foot forward and kind of ran out of gas.

But tonight, a cameo from Daryl Hall redeemed the conchords almost instantly. I am a huge Daryl Hall and John Oates fan. In fact, it was the first concert that my parents took us to when we were younger. My dad believes that concert was the moment that he began to lose his hearing. I'm not sure about that, it's not like Hall and Oates were known for their deafening sound. Nonetheless, I thought this interview with Daryl Hall was interesting - and it includes a little snippet about having appeared on the show.

I'm excited for the gym class heroes mash up CD that is forthcoming. Should be very interesting indeed!

15 minutes of fame?

Well - it's happened. Elic and I are TV stars. Sort of.

Got an email from a long lost friend in Tucson Arizona, which was nice - he tracked me down after watching an MSNBC spot - an interview of the CEO of "GodTube." GodTube is a knock off of Youtube. Get it? Anyway, all of our videos are on youtube, except for the Mac/PC parodies. Those were posted by another church who had purchased our videos to show at their church (they didn't know they didn't have the right to show them anywhere else).

Anyway, the guys at Godtube were great - they let us gain ownership of our videos and decide whether or not we wanted to keep them up there ourselves or take them down. Since they were continuously in the godtube top ten, we figured we'll keep them up.

And so, on this MSNBC interview, you can see that they have featured one of our Mac/PC parodies as a part of the interview with the CEO. Pretty cool huh? Watch it below...

Aaron Sorkin takes the fall

Our own Pat Masek was in LA last week and texted me while in a restaurant, saying "I'm sitting next to Aaron Sorkin!"

I told her to tell him that we loved Studio 60. She didn't get a chance because he was giving an interview and seemed to be pretty intense and focused.

Apparently, this was the interview he was doing. From the LA Times, here's his explanation and/or apology for how the show that had so much promised fell to an untimely death...

And it keeps on coming...

They can't stop wanting to make God funny... more television news, this time from Borat and Seinfeld director Larry Charles and Bill Maher. It's a documentary shot in the Middle East seeking to talk about God and to be funny. Wow... That's quite a combo... read the TV squad article here...

Personally, I don't think God needs their help...

Doubting Thomas

Well, Hollywood can't stop drawing from the Bible well... George Clooney and his production company are preparing a pilot for Showtime called "Doubting Thomas", details about it came from Variety... click here to read the whole story...

Basically, it follows a televangelist who has a stroke, and the natural successor son can't step in because of a scandal - which leaves the "prodigal brother" as the last resort to take over the "family business." Should be interesting to see if they can make a credible stab at what it looks like to promote the family business, since even the classification of "televangelist" seems instantly derogatory...

The same article talks about another show involving call girls. I can only assume that they are dramatizing the story of Rahab...

Retreat - American Idle

I'm on a retreat (read more about that here) so I was unable to watch American Idol last night - how did they do? I'll be giving a full report later tonight when I get back so that the fake John Mayer can get a good night's sleep...

American Idle - Final Four

Okay, each of the final four are performing 2 songs each - so I'll be as brief as I can...

First of all - Barry Gibb has done something to his face that has kept his mouth from working. Wow.

Melinda: #1 - Inside and Out - She turns this song into a Dionne Warwick or Gladys Knight song, very good, but she needs a second song that is more familiar to make an impression this week. #2 - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart - How can you make us care? She's exact, yes, but Simon is right -she's become the backup singer. Will the last long note impress anyone? Maybe.

Blake: #1 - You Should Be Dancin' - Flock of Seagulls called and they want their hair back. I can't hear his voice standing out in the falsetto at all, especially when the bgvs kick in - kind of disappointing to be honest. #2 - This is Where I Came In - A song from 2001. Much better than his falsetto, but ultimately the song was not memorable enough.

Lakisha - #1 - Stayin' Alive - Hot. Great musical arrangement, but this is probably the seventh time that AI has shown specific notes given to LaKisha from the guest and she has totally blown them off. Not that anyone could understand what Barry Gibb said anyway. #2 - Run To Me - She's more calm and not pushing, but it's not exactly interesting yet. Can she hit the high notes and the key change without screaming? Yes she can - It was great! Except for that horrific last note. Ouch.

Jordin: #1 - To Love Somebody - High Praise from the Plastic Gibb - She needs to win this thing. She has the most effortless powerful voice - the closest thing to the original Idol (Clarkson) in six seasons. #2 - Woman in Love - Great pick! She looks beautiful - still seventeen, right?  Great key change! I think she's a no brainer to be head to head with Melinda for the finals - but can her young charm overpower the precision of Melinda? Hard to say, but tonight has made for her a career to last way past the show.

Say goodbye LaKisha... Blake will survive I'm afraid...

Heroes

I know it may not seem like I would think this based on how often I blog about American Idol, but the best television show hands down this year has been Heroes. Here's Entertainment Weekly's new article on the show getting ready for the big season finale... I cannot wait.