h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

oh I love that film, it's not on TV often enough these days

I could never quite my head around the idea of him being Mork's kid. But I could never quite get my head around Mork either.

I enjoyed Mork & Mindy when it was on and I was a kid. I'm sure I'd find it unwatchable now.

Sadly, I had exactly that experience trying to watch The Goodies recently.

Phew, I'm worn out after that!

The Goodies. Yeah, they seem a bit dated now, in fact I'm even starting to find that in Monty Python, but the nostalgia factor is still keeping it watchable for me. For now, at least.

That's an interesting phenomenon. Monty Python was as ground-breaking as The Goons, but I never get tired of listening to those on Radio 4 Extra. Nor do I tire of classic sitcoms like Open All Hours, Porridge or The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and I can easily watch all four series of I Didn't Know You Cared, and then start all over again from the beginning, but the appeal of The Young Ones is starting to wane. That's not the case with Bottom though. I never get tired of that.

I see what you mean about The Young Ones. There's something very "of its time" about it.

I haven't seen a Spitting Image for a long time, I wonder how that stands up now. I suspect quite a lot of it is still highly watchable and funny. Young Ones and Spitting Image were both satirical but in different ways. The characters in Spitting were actual caricatures, whereas the characters in Young Ones started off as caricatures but now seem like clichés.

Incidentally, I just finished watching the first series of Rising Damp, which is on Netflix in the US That show is *very* dated, and not a little racist. But times were different then and you have to look at it in that light. I didn't watch too many of them when it was first broadcast in the 70s so I'm almost watching it for the first time. It's a fascinating snapshot of a world that hardly exists any more, leastways I hope not. Grotty furnished rooms and lecherous landlord. For a while I lived in a house that was similar in that the landlady lived downstairs and upstairs was all bedsits, but that's where the similarity ended. It was nothing like Rigsby's house.

Another one I'd like to have another look at to see how it bears up is The New Statesman. I'd imagine it would have seemed very dated in the Tony Blair years, but probably less so now.

I had a dream last night that Willie Nelson popped his clogs and that I saw it on the BBC's entertainment page, so if it should come to pass in the next few days, or some suitably and worryingly brief period...

Better late than never, I suppose http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22143675

Here's Robin Williams' eulogy to Jonathan Winters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/arts/television/robin-williams-recalls-the-lessons-of-jonathan-winters.html?_r=1&

Also... everyone should watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWDa1xPTPA

I love it when comedians take a simple prop and turn it into all kinds of things with their skills

Richie Havens
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22259627

One of the best performances at Woodstock, and all the more impressive for it being just him and a guitar *and* being the opening act of the entire gig. The man had enormous dignity.

oh I'm sad now. I saw him about 19 or 20 years ago at the Rock Am Ring (Bonnie Raitt was at that one too) and he was fantastic, got the crowd (who all seemed to be there for Rage Against The Machine and Soul Asylum all up on their feet singing and having a bit of a group-hug.

Fantastic performance.

Bonnie Raitt. There's someone I'd like to see next time she comes through Austin.

she is fabulous live - everyone seems to have a great time onstage as well as off, and she and her band are fantastic musicians.

I've heard that she's the reason Ian McLagan ended up living in Austin, although there's another story that it's because Ronnie Lane was living here here when his MS was getting bad and Ian came to visit.

Ray Harryhausen
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22441567

Films like Jason and The Argonauts were perfect for Saturday morning flicks when a young Gosho used to go each week in the mid 60s But not 1,000,000 Years BC, sadly

Bryan Forbes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22459886

Although he's probably best known for directing The Stepford Wives and Whistle Down the Wind, playing nudist camp attendant Turk Thrust in A Shot in the Dark and writing several screenplays including Chaplin, as far as I'm concerned he'll always be the director of one of my favourite films, mentioned many a time in my journal - The Wrong Box

Which I'm going watch this evening.