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This is for anyone who has decided to quit cigarettes this Year. Don’t bother.

Look!

Fred Flintstone And Barney Rubble do it, and they’re cool….right?

No, they’re not, they’re both dead, but I thought it would be interesting to show you these two gems from the good old days when we all lived to the ripe old age of 46.

Who the hell were they appealing to with this ad? Oh yeah, children.

Ok, well here’s one for the adults then….

That’s right kids, more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette. Proof if we ever actually needed it that television is inherently evil and will destroy you and all that you love eventually.

In a positive counter article to my tirade about the new A Team movie a few hours ago, I would like to bring to the attention of the uninitiated a wonderful show that has been running for some years in the US, but has failed to make it big over here so far.

Burn Notice is a very simple story concerning ex spy Michael Weston, played by Jeffery Donovan. Weston has been ‘burned’, which means that his assets are frozen and he is now essentially a fugitive from the law. When you get burned, you are stuck wherever you end up, which in this case, just happens to be sunny Miami.

Weston teams up with his ex girlfriend (and also ex IRA operative) Fiona Glenanne (played by Gabrielle Anwar, from ‘Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead’ and ‘Press Gang’ oddly enough. Yes. That ‘Press Gang’, the one with sofa lipped Dexter Fletcher). The icing on the cake is Sam, played with gusto by Bruce Campbell.

The trio spend each episode helping out local unfortunates (gullible son in trouble with loan sharks after trying to help his sick mother, that sort of thing) whilst Michael gets closer to discovering who ‘burned’ him. It’s all mixed up with the exact elements that made TV so great in the past. It’s witty without being smug or self satisfied. It has an abundance of spy tips and cool little sequences in which Weston and Sam (an ex Navy Seal) put their collective heads together to outwit the bad guys.

The shows are just under an hour and in the classic vein of Magnum PI or The A Team, they feel like little mini movies. The scripting is spot on and the pace compelling. It’s also the sort of thing that you can put on in front of almost anyone.

Weston’s mother, a delightful and acerbic chain smoking retiree is played by Sharon Gless, who was Cagney in Cagney and Lacey. The strong point of the show is that it takes the viewer on an escapist route through espionage, exploitation, extortion and general badness, all being taken care of by the most enjoyable on screen trio I have seen in years.

Campbell excels in this programme. The perfect sidekick, he exudes charisma and seems far happier to play the backup character as some of his leading man roles of late have been somewhat disappointing.

Burn Notice is coming to the end of it’s third season at the moment and has been commissioned for a fourth. I am watching them as they get released and I have to say, I haven’t had this much fun since I used to watch Tom Selleck run down the beaches of Hawaii in his little red shorts. After I was served the restraining order, however, I had to make do with watching Magnum PI on TV, but you understand what I’m getting at here. Find yourself the seasons and enjoy, you’ll be glad that you did.

NB: Fiona’s accent changes after the pilot thankfully. It just serves to prove that the majority of English actresses cannot pull off a convincing Irish accent.

This week in Irish politics has been turbulent to say the least. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan delivered the most severe Budget in living memory, in a bid to slash €4 Billion from public spending. Specifically targeting low income public sector workers (including nurses and care workers, such as my wife) and people on unemployment benefit. You know, exactly the kind of people who should be targeted to repay massive debts built up by the government and banks. Public sector workers were issued with their third deduction this year, following an earlier pay cut and an increased pension levy. Public sector workers earning under €30,000 per annum have to take a cut of 5%, this can total up to a €1,500 loss. Taking into account that Ireland is still in the top 3 most expensive countries in Europe, this is no small sum.
High earners were spared any further taxation due to the fact that, and I paraphrase the esteemed Finance Minister here: ‘They’re already paying loads of tax, so shut your mouth and get back to your lowly paid job, serf.’ Elsewhere in his frighteningly Victorian speech, he basically stated that it was the duty of the common man to pay for the mistakes of those who they elected to lead them. Wow.

With mounting tension growing over the retraction of almost any opposition to the Budget by previously vocal Independent TD’s (The equivalent of MP’s in the UK), it was the turn of Green Party TD Paul Gogarty to face the backbenchers over his ethical u turn. This was his response.
Why isn’t Question Time always like this?

Yes, you really should watch all of this. It’s the best of all the ‘Unplugged’ series.

What a voice.

Poor Layne.

All the talk of nostaligia this morning got me to thinking, what was the most significant Saturday morning kids show for me? Remember when all cartoons were linked by a show that would go on from approximately 9.25am until well after noon? I was looking for this to add to the collection earlier, but with no success. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you ‘Round The Bend‘

Ok, so this is the cover of the ZX Spectrum video cassette, but have you any idea how difficult it is to find anything to do with Round The Bend? I can’t express just how much of an influence this show was on me during my formative years, with its toilet based shennanigans leaving me doubled up in knots every saturday morning as a carefree 8 year old.

In what was essentially Spitting Image for kids, this was a peurile, disgusting, foul show, which I couldn’t have loved more. Very few people in my class watched it, but I remember how excited I would be when it was on. The parodies of popular cartoons such as ‘Wee Man & The Masters of the Loo-niverse’ were not too far removed from Viz material.

With pretty much everything that was ever filmed in the world ever now available on the internet, I have never been able to find more than a few minor clips of this. If ANYONE has video recordings of this, please get in contact with me! I’m sure that we can sort something out.

Round the Bend was a real one off, it never underestimated kids and hit our screens just before all kids TV became banal, ‘extreme’ shite with lots of squealing and shiny paedophiles. It was filthy, rotten and a terrible influence, which was exactly what kids want.

It was replaced in 1989 by the hugely inferior Ghost Train, which whilst trying pretty hard (and we liked Nobby The Sheep), could never live up to the legacy that Doc Croc and companions left behind.

I’m up earlier than anyone else in the house. I have several kinds of cereal. I’m working on a new comic this morning. What better way to accompany all of this and regress to a state of childlike glee and sugar induced hyperactivity than a plethora of awesome cartoons? No better way baby, and you better belive it!

How about we start with an episode of ‘The Real Ghostbusters‘ as opposed to the other ‘Ghostbusters‘, which had a monkey in it.

Follow that up nicely with the pilot episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or ‘Hero’ Turtles, if you lived in Ireland or the UK, we caouldn’t handle ninjas in the nineties, that may have implied that they were foreign).

And becasue we all love the soothing vocal talents of Lorenzo Music so much, here’s an old episode of Garfield & Friends.

Happy Saturday Peoples!

I always prefer documentaries that are made while the subjects are still alive (when at all possible to attain). The feigned reverence and rose tinted view that posthumous offerings tend to display often leave a sour taste in my mouth (Such as ‘Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride‘ a hastily put together film, featuring some truly embarrassing moments, notably from Gary Busey). It is for this reason that, despite being a great admirer of Dr Thompson’s works, I have still not yet watched ‘Gonzo‘.

‘Fear And Loathing In Gonzovision‘ is an hour long BBC documentary from 1978 which follows not only Thompson, but allows equal screentime to English Illustrator Ralph Steadman (a compelling and enticing individual with magnetism that is on par with the Doctor himself). This is a rare glimpse into the chemistry that allowed their professional relationship to span several decades.Emphasising what a collaborative effort their endeavors often where.

Covering the period before Hunter’s escapades made it onscreen in ‘Where the Buffalo Roam‘, a watchable but far from classic interpretation starring Bill Murray, this is a superb little piece that offers some unique and insightful material.