Seinfeld Doesn't Like Talk Shows

Jerry Seinfeld explains why he doesn't like doing talk shows and probably won't be on them in the future.



I don't think there's anything particularly interesting, funny or revelatory here, exactly. I think it's no secret that talk shows do pre-interviews. It's just a matter of degree. And there are pros and cons each way.

Letterman, on one end of the spectrum, didn't rely on the pre-interview hardly at all and the result was a genuine conversation that might be boring, might be awkward or might be amazing.

On the other end of the spectrum is Conan, who'll always get the funny interview but it's utterly artificial. Anytime you hear questions like "You were on vacation recently, I wonder if you enjoy foreign breakfasts." or "You're pretty popular, I bet you have some interesting conversations with toll booth operators", it should be obvious to anyone on the planet who's given it even a second of thought that this is not a real conversation - he knows there's a funny story there and he wants the monkey to dance.

Terms of Service Endearment

For the first time since its cancellation the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 returned to Comedy Central. Now the makers of Rifftrax, they appeared as guests on "At Midnight".

I haven't been watching "At Midnight", although I am a fan of host Chris Hardwick. But somewhere along the line, it changed format from a late night talk show to a sort of faux-comedy-game-show. I don't understand that plus I very much doubt that these jokes are "off the cuff" and not prepared beforehand. Still, the bottom line is: it's funny.

This is the one clip available on youtube:



The whole show is very funny, you can watch the full episode here.

Late Show - Buzz Aldrin at the Daytime Emmys

The Late Show posted this video as part of the buildup to Dave's show but I didn't notice until now. Remember the time the Late Show sent Buzz Aldrin as their special correspondent to the Daytime Emmys? Here it is.

Brian Regan has a bit (and special) entitled "I Walked on the Moon" which is very similar. I wonder if this was the inspiration.

Best of the Worst

Here's a podcast/youtube show worth trying out. In "Best of the Worst", four people watch three bad movies, discuss each one and then try to determine which one is the "best of the worst". Usually they'll also determine what the worst movie was and destroy it. The three bad movies are usually random VHS tapes and they're almost always in the sci-fi, action and horror genres.

The show is done by redlettermedia. Some of you may know them for the Mr. Plinkett Reviews or Half in the Bag show.

The movies they discuss have bad language, violence and nudity so, by extension, this show is NSFW kinda.

BOOYAH

Found this today at Whole Foods.

SWEET SASSY MO-LASSIE! GET OUT THE CHECKBOOK AND PAY GRANDMA FOR THE RUBDOWN.

STU-POT!

Continue? - Batman

After the show begins on a religious note (?!), the guys at Continue move on to more mundane topics like mechanical forks, the Axis Chemicals on I-95 and being cool in the 90's.

They also play Batman.

Conan - Staff Reviews

Conan conducts the annual staff performance reviews.


I don't understand how anyone can question Jordan Schlansky's work. The guy has various tasks and duties!

The Last Late Show: The Video

There's no way to embed it but you can see the last episode of the Late Show in full here.

I'm posting a couple highlight clips but I can't recommend enough watching the full episode. The whole episode is highlights and besides that, it's kind of historic television.


Given that this is the remote chosen for the last show, I guess this is the one they think is the best remote of all-time. That seems strange to me but I can't think of a better one off-hand... "Dave works at Taco Bell"


This is just amazing.  I can't imagine the amount of work that went into it.

The Last Late Show: First Take

The last Late Show with David Letterman just aired and I thought it was fantastic. It's hard to imagine a more perfect hour of television. It was amazing how it could be so funny and yet how it could be such an emotional an experience.

From the time I was made aware that David Letterman existed I wanted to watch every piece of television of his that I could get my hands on. I have so many great memories wrapped up in the show - not just watching (alone, mostly in my bedroom), but sharing it with friends and talking about the jokes. It's impossible to see the old clips of the show without remembering where I was in my life when it first aired and what I was doing. For these reasons, I couldn't help but be swept up in a wave of nostalgia and the bittersweet look at an era that is officially gone. As of tonight, it's gone.

Dave is nothing if not unpredictable and so one of the things I've loved to do through the years is "play the Dave" and try to predict things. One of the things I would have predicted about the end of the last show - that I would have predicted wrongly - is that he would end the show sitting on a stool. Jack Paar signed off for the last time while sitting on a stool, Johnny Carson signed off his last show while sitting on a stool, I thought Dave would make that nod to tradition but it didn't happen.

But there was one thing like that, I think. If you read the reviews of the show tomorrow (and, really, why would you?) it's altogether possible that they will cite the "A Day in the Life of Dave" segment as the only weakness and an "uncharacteristic" one at that. But in his final days Johnny Carson did a segment like that and so Dave's doing it too.

Conan - Letterman Goodbye

As anticipated, Conan's on-air goodbye and "thank you" to David Letterman. Very emotional.

Late Show - Best of Bill Murray

This is amazing. There isn't enough time or detail in any of the clips to really do them justice but the sheer number... the sheer number of amazing clips from over the years is so impressive...



The full Bill Murray interview (this interview) is worth watching but doesn't exist as a separate clip. You can see it within the full episode here.

Late Show - Best of Rupert Jee

On David Letterman's second-to-last show, Rupert Jee makes one last appearance.

Rupert Jee goes right back to the "old days" of the show where part of the fun was putting people on TV who had no business being on TV - and by extension, making celebrities out of people who were simply "normal" people. And Rupert Jee always seemed like a just a really nice guy.


Watching these clips again, I'm amazed at how quickly it feels like it's from an ancient era. Not due to the video quality or technology, the entire zeitgeist is gone forever. Today the "comedy of annoyance" feels mean-spirited, whereas back then it was just the cutting-edge of comedy. Not only that, this is cutting-edge comedy that still feels new and fresh today - and how often does that happen? I was uncomfortable watching it then, I'm uncomfortable watching it now.

"It was my thumb."

Conan - Letterman Tribute

Well... sort of. I'm still waiting for Conan's ON-AIR Letterman tribute. As of the time of this post, Conan still hasn't mentioned on his show. But he recently wrote a tribute in the form of an article for EW.com.

You can read it here.

A notable portion:

"Dave’s show was that rare phenomenon: a big, fat show business hit that seemingly despised show business. Dave didn’t belong, and he had no interest in belonging. He amused himself, skewered clueless celebrity guests, and did strange, ironic comedic bits that no one had seen on television before. Everything about that show was surreal and off-kilter. Where late night television had once provided comfort, this man reveled in awkwardness. Cher called him an asshole. Andy Kaufman ran screaming from the set. Chris Elliot lived under the stairs. Throughout one episode the entire show rotated a complete 360 degrees, for no reason whatsoever. By 1985, when I graduated from college and was ready to try my hand as a comedy writer, Late Night with David Letterman had been the Holy Grail for several miraculous years."

Tonight Show - Jimmy's Dave Tribute

Jimmy Fallon isn't much of a speechwriter, of course, but it's from the heart. Dave's last show is tomorrow night.

Late Show - Norm MacDonald

Norm MacDonald performed stand-up comedy one last time on the Late Show with David Letterman. If you want to see the entire performance, you can see it here. But an interesting thing happened on his last joke...

[Original Link Broken]

Link to the Moment.

Late Show - Last Show Approaching

David Letterman's career on late night is quickly coming to an end; his last show is May 20th. In an interesting interview, Dave talks about what it all means, his heart surgery, the scandal and reveals that he's been taking anti-depressants.

This was the part that I found most interesting:

As the end nears, Late Show has dug into its vaults to replay a sampling of vintage comedy bits, some almost Dada-esque in their absurdity. (On a recent show, a 1993 clip found Dave cruising Manhattan making mischief with his car phone, as when he alerted a news-radio station that traffic was backed up on Amsterdam Avenue, then corrected himself: 'Oh, I think it was just a red light.')
Those old clips make him nostalgic for the Lettermanesque-ness he may have since outgrown.

'I realize what the old show was, and we haven't being doing the old show in years,' he says.  

'And that's all because of me.'

I have to agree. Not that I've been saying that it's "all because of him" but that my reason for losing interest in the show is because it had changed. It wasn't that Dave was old or that his competitors were so much better or that he couldn't produce "the viral videos", it was that they simply stopped doing The Late Show.

I imagine there'll be many such clip montages in the episodes leading up to the final show, so I look forward to that.

Continue? - The Shadow

In the 80s, when the family sitcom reigned supreme, there would invariably be that one episode where there was a power outage (or a hurricane or an emergency) and the characters would be forced to remember old episodes in the form of a clip show.

Well, the tradition continues...

Tonight Show - Extreme Jack Black

Whatever surprise this bit might have had is ruined by the title of the youtube video. Well anyways...



For comparison:



If anyone asks your favorite Extreme or Beethoven song (and, honestly, at some point probably EVERYONE will be asked that question) I suggest you consider this lesser known track.

TV - Other Space

A foreign intelligence has invaded the ship and suddenly every crew member is experiencing their wildest dreams as very real hallucinations. Zalian Fletcher suddenly finds a tuna fish sandwich on the ground and begins to eat it. Later, crew members discuss this occurrence:

"So your #1 fantasy is to find a tuna fish sandwich on the ground?"
"It... doesn't have to be on the ground."

"Other Space" is a science-fiction comedy (more comedy than science fiction) whose first season is available on "Yahoo! Screen". Like the classic "Red Dwarf", each episode finds them encountering some outer space phenomenon with hilarious consequences.

I was first attracted to the show because the cast features none other than Joel Hodgson, of MST3K fame. But a second big surprise is that he's also joined in space by a robot pal played by Trace Beaulieu who played Crow, his space robot pal in that show as well. A third big surprise is that one of the female leads, Tina Shukshin, is played by Milana Vayntrub (of Let's Talk About Something More Interesting though more people will recognize her as "the AT&T girl"). Actually seeing these three people interacting in the same show makes me scared that the producers have actually tapped into my dreams somehow and are putting it on screen. What am I, the Lathe of Heaven? [Obscure PBS referencessss. No one ever gets them.] In the second season, watch them to be flying in the A-Team van and add a Philadelphia Eagles sub-plot.

I found "Other Space" to be pretty funny and would recommend giving it a watch. The show's creator is Paul Feig who was one of the minds behind "Freaks and Geeks". The sci-fi is well done and there's lots of solid comedy despite the somewhat cheap budget. The main strength of the show is the character acting - there are some great, offbeat deliveries and one suspects there's some improv going on. The pace/editing of the show is very quick, which I find troubling, but that may just mean that it rewards repeated viewings and would be great for quoting with friends.

MST3K Trivia Tidbits:

 - Joel's sporting long hair which is something that he did in the very, very early days of MST3K. His character, as well as some aspects of the show (and therefore the hair), were originally inspired by Bruce Dern's 60s hippie spaceman character in the movie "Silent Running".

- Trace Beaulieu's robot character is named "A.R.T." In the early days of MST3K they would read fan letters. One day, a child sent in a drawing of the show's characters with each of them neatly labeled. The picture of Crow was labeled as "Art" for reasons that no one of the show could understand. For the rest of the series, Crow would periodically be called Art as an inside joke.

Tonight Show - Bottom of the Charts

This is a great example of comedy that's so stupid that it's funny.



That's a deep cut, referencing the Crash Test Dummies. Who remembers the Crash Test Dummies? That, plus Pee Wee's timing is off.

Tonight Show - The Hawkeye Theme

This one's kind of borderline but I found it to be catchy and cute. Hawkeye is a little insecure about his lack of superpowers and decides to sing about it using the singing power of song...



The man bowls over 70!

The Official Space Jam Website: Still Existing

Would you like to flashback to the 90s? Do you remember what it was like to be on geocities? Would you like free screen savers and browser icons? Have you forgotten what it's like for a website to have frames?

Then head on down to the official Space Jam website which is inexplicably still a valid destination on the Information Superhighway. Simply point your browser device to:

http://www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm

Where are the MIDIs?

And press enter and -- Zing!-- you're there! Check your connection before downbringing the trailer - it's 7.5 Megabytes, so be prepared to wait a while! Don't forget to call the toll-free number to buy the soundtrack on cassette. Order now and get a web-surfers-only special!

[Thanks to Red Letter Media for this tidbit]

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Tonight Show - Emotional Interview

Jimmy sits down with Robert Downey Jr. for an "emotional" interview.

GMM - Weirdest Workout Trends

Today on Good Mythical Morning, Rhett and Link review the weirdest workout trends. Not covered: Jazzercise.


"Oooh, they're gonna hip hop, Link! They're gonna hip hop!"

Conan and Jordan Schlansky in The Room

Conan and Jordan Schlansky play a game where two people locked in a room have to solve a puzzle in order to escape. Tommy Wiseau is not involved in anyway.

Hogan's Heroes : Breaking

I'm watching an episode of Hogan's Heroes from Season 5 and in the episode "the gang" has to retrieve something from Klink's safe. So Newkirk puts on the stethoscope and breaks into it.

Come on, this is Season 5, they should simply have the combination memorized by now. What are we supposed to think, that Klink is changing out his safe every few days? Heh Heh.

The Tonight Show - Louis C.K.

How rare it is that "The Dana Carvey" show gets mentioned in any capacity but how sweet it is. Louis C.K. tells a story about the time when he was head writer for "The Dana Carvey Show" and Jimmy Fallon auditioned to be in the cast.



I've always thought I should make a post dedicated to "The Dana Carvey Show" but I probably never will so I might as well summarize it briefly here.

"The Dana Carvey Show" was a tragically under-watched, underrated, under-appreciated show that was cancelled after just 7 episodes. It was probably my favorite show of the mid-90s.

Look at the talent involved. The writers/performers for the show included:

Louis C.K.
Robert Smigel
Dana Carvey
Stephen Colbert
Greg Daniels (Parks and Rec, King of the Hill, The Office)
Steve Carell
Spike Feresten (SNL, The Simpsons, Seinfeld)
Charlie Kaufman (yes, THE Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Jon Glaser (Late Night with Conan O'Brien)
Bob Odenkirk
Dino Stamatopoulos (Late Night with Conan O'Brien)

And ALMOST Jimmy Fallon.

Brian Stack Leaves Conan

Thursday was long-time writer Brian Stack's last show. Stack joined in 1997 during the "Late Night" days and was a mainstay actor in sketches and bits. Some of my personal favorites were: Clive Clemmons, Hannigan (the traveling salesman), Artie Kendall (the Bing Crosby-esque singer), Brian LaFontaine (the creepy lounge singer), the singer of the Minty theme, WikiBear and Frankenstein.

The best-of tribute to him is not available on youtube but can be watched on the Conan website here.

This feels like a huge loss. He, along with Robert Smigel, Jon Glaser, Andy Blitz and Brian McCann seemed to be the heart of the show that I first fell in love with in the late 90s. And of those, Stack was the last one left.





"Hitlery-hoo???"

The Price Is Right

Still pretty smooth.

The Late Late Show - Corden's First Episode

The new host of The Late Late Show is James Corden and his first episode aired last night. You can watch it here.

Although I've stated it many times, I'll mention again how a late night talk show can't be assessed based on the first episode - it's a marathon not a sprint, and boy is it a long marathon. He had the big comedy piece with loads of celebrities and it went well (see below) but he's not going to have that every night. And his first guests were Mila Kunis and Tom Hanks... he will also not have those guests every night.

That aside, how was the first episode? It was good. The monologue was short but heartfelt - he thanked his predecessor Craig Ferguson but didn't thank Craig Kilborn or Tom Snyder (more on that later). The guests were obviously good. He has Reggie Watts as his band leader. He has no desk and they actually had both guests come out at the same time. It's unclear whether that's going to be the norm or whether that's just for the first show.

The second comedy piece (see below) was also very good. One gets the feeling that they'll be going for the kind of comedy pieces that go viral on youtube instead of the usual "desk" routines (well, there's no desk, so...). Again though, you won't have Tom Hanks every night.





I love the fact that they went with a Willy Wonka/Golden Ticket reference, I'm a big fan. But there's something strange and coincidental about that. When Craig Kilborn's first episode as host was about to air, this is one of the commercials that aired:



And this wasn't the only one, it was a whole campaign of several different commercials. There was even one with Vince Vaughn that you can watch here.

It's the same show so why do I think it's strange and coincidental? Well Corden didn't thank Craig Kilborn for starting/continuing the show. Seems like if he was even slightly aware of the show's past, he would have done that.

The Tonight Show - Piccolo Girl

This is one of those "feel good" clips that you can send to your grandma or aunt. I won't explain who the Villanova Piccolo Girl is because it's already in the clip but she sits in with The Roots for the night.

Movie Review: Saturday Night (2014)

Saturday Night (2014)

Filmed in 2008, premiered in 2010 and officially released in 2014, I'm surprised that I had never even heard that this movie existed until today.

"Saturday Night" is a fly-on-the-wall documentary that follows the cast and crew of "Saturday Night Live" for the production cycle of one episode (one week). The host (John Malkovich) is introduced on Monday and from that point they have 5 days left to write and produce an hour and a half of  live television.

This movie is exactly what I was expecting and exactly what I wanted. You always hear the lore of SNL - about how the writers stay up all night to try to squeeze out sketch ideas, how sketches can be killed by one bad rehearsal, how no one can memorize the lines because rewrites are happening right up to the time of going live - but you ONLY hear about it, there's never been a way to see it up close. In fact, most of the inner workings of SNL seem to be pretty well shrouded in secrecy. This movie really takes you inside and places you in the middle of everything that's happening.

Directed by James Franco, the film is extremely low budget but I get the feeling that that has more positives, in this case, than negatives. For one thing, I think a full documentary crew would be seen as too intrusive to the show and wouldn't be allowed access to begin with - better to have a few people with handheld cameras. But it also helps to shed the weight of being "a documentary". I don't need an interview about what Chevy Chase did in 1976 and I certainly don't need the backstory of how the show began. The movie is simply: how are these people going to get a show to air this week? Will it be funny? And the handheld cameras, unsteady as they may be, suit the stressful, hectic feeling perfectly.

7/10.

This movie is very hard to find (I thought) except that while writing this review, I found it's on Hulu. That was easy. You can watch it (with commercials) here.

Continue? - The Ken Burns Tetralogy

One of my favorite recurring bits on Continue? is when they spoof Ken Burns documentaries. Below are all four times they've done it. All of which were edited by Josh Henderson.

First is one of my favorite episodes all-time, "Sammy Sosa Softball Slam" which parodies "Baseball". Also the ending (which I won't spoil) is so great.



In "Super Conflict" they tackle "The Civil War" (though there might be some "The Great War" in there) and it's another excellent ending.



This is probably the weakest episode, "Rising Zan". Also probably "The Civil War" though the music is from "Baseball".



"Guerilla War" doesn't reference any specific Ken Burns documentary, it's more of an amalgam. But Ken Burns does have a documentary called "Vietnam" due to be aired next year. This episode is notable for the fact that it's the first appearance of any other character other than Granola Daniel.

Tonight Show - Will Ferrell is Little Debbie

Uhhh.... well.... I guess, Will Ferrell is Little Debbie.

IMDB 250

In addition to the current IMDB Top 250 list, the IMDB website also created several historical lists across the history of their existence. They take a snapshot of what the IMDB 250 looked like at the end of the year 2002, for instance, and call it the Top 250 2002.

If you've watched all the movies on a particular list (and you have an IMDB account), they'll award you the "badge" for that list. This is what my profile looks like as of today:

2015 Cardboard Classic

The rules of the Cardboard Classic are simple: make a sled using only cardboard and glue. And yet, ever year the sleds get more and more creative and impressive.

And yet for how funny and crazy the event is, it seems to me to be the best kept secret going. I would think this thing would be "known" by now. I would think that each year's video would be another viral sensation. As of now, this video has only 467 views. I don't mind being in on a secret, I'm just surprised.

I Was with Coco

Todd Levin is a former writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. He wrote an article for GQ about what it was like during the Conan/NBC debacle called "I Was with Coco. It's pretty interesting but not a ton of new information... Read it in full here.

Mr. Belvedere Update

In this week's episode of "Mr. Belvedere", the writers decided to go dark. I mean, there's "a very special episode" dark and then there's "ALF's Christmas Special" dark. This was borderline "ALF's Christmas Special".

So, in the episode, Wesley is hanging out in an old folk's home. I don't know why, I missed the beginning. I'm guessing the reason he was there was that it was in the script. But then an old woman gives him money. Ok. But then the old woman accuses him of stealing the money. What's the deal?

It's time for a dramatic monologue from the special guest star. "I think I have Alzheimer's Disease.", she says but doesn't care to find out for sure. But then what happened with the money? Well, by accusing him of stealing, Wesley won't like her anymore and so won't have to suffer through her long, slow descent into madness and death. Yeah, it's much better to make a child feel guilty and give him the feeling that he let you down before you died.

Fortunately for little Wesley, this plan doesn't reach completion. Some time later, he finds out what she did and why and goes back to visit her in the home. Wesley's a really memorable guy, and love conquers all, so it's time for the happy ending that the 80s deserve. Wesley goes back to the home only to find that not only does she have no idea who he is, but she also isn't even able to function as a human being anymore. Time for Mr. Belvedere (Brocktoon) to take him home.

And that's it. Have fun, kids.

Well... technically, that isn't entirely true. The show still ends with Brocktoon writing in his diary and they have him looking particularly silly drinking tea out of one of those beer-dispensing plastic helmets. But it feels like an empty gesture and the credits roll to a dour rendition of the theme song with a particularly mournful clarinet. "We might just live the good life yet", I mean, that one old lady from the episode definitely won't but, you know, we might.

Conan in Cuba

Conan became the first person to film an entire late-night talk show in Cuba. The whole episode is nothing but remotes so it's obviously great and worth watching. You can watch the whole episode here.

But, for what it's worth, I thought I would post my favorite segment. This woman's attitude is priceless.

Continue? - Kid Dracula

The Continue? Guys and Dom play "Demon Castle Special: I'm Kid Dracula", a nintendo game that was only released in Japan. They struggle to reconcile the great gameplay with the varying levels of racism.

GMM - The Mystery of UVB-76

This is going to be slightly out of context, if you want the full context you can watch this first. But I thought this mystery of UVB-76 was particularly interesting as it sounds very much like something from "Lost".

Tonight Show - Jimmy's SNL 40 Story

Jimmy tells the story of what happened to him at the SNL 40th Anniversary party. I'm sorry I missed it.



You can tell they had a long night because later in the show, Jimmy mentioned that Edward Norton was on the show and he came out for his interview. Once everyone determined that it wasn't time for the interview yet, Ed had to go back from whence he came.

Conan - Triumph and Jack Again

Earlier Triumph and Jack McBrayer were on NBC to promote their new show and now they're on Conan to deliver the jokes that NBC wouldn't allow...



You can hear Triumph's special Andy jokes here.

Tonight Show - Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

Triumph on the Tonight Show. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has a new show on Adult Swim in which he co-stars with Jack McBrayer. In this clip, Jack explains the premise of the show...

Tonight Show - Saved By the Bell

HEY HEY HEY HEY! What is going on here?!

This one's a long time coming. In fact, I've been covering this story for 5 years now. And by "covering this story" I mean "thinking about donuts and improving my vocabulary". The point is, Jimmy's wanted to have a "Saved By the Bell" reunion for a long time and it's finally happened. I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so scared...

Tonight Show - Two Neil Youngs

I have two things to say about this.

1) Although it felt inevitable, it's still pretty fun.

2) If you're ever in a crowd where "Old Man" is being played, please, please, don't clap along. Please, not on that song. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.

Tonight Show - Kid Theater

Some kids wrote some spec scripts based on the title "Birdman" and Michael Keaton is on the show to act some of them out. So break out the tissues because it's about to get DRAMATIC.

Tonight Show - Brian Williams Raps

In this edition of Brian Williams Raps, Brian Williams raps "Who Am I?" by Snoop Dogg. I had no idea they were cursing so much on the evening news.

Tonight Show - Lip Sync Battle

The Tonight Show did a live post-Super Bowl show which included a Lip Sync Battle with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. Feel the magic.

The Super Boredom

As always, I have an ongoing project to boycott the Super Bowl as long as I don't have a rooting interest (Pre-2011, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014).

This year, I didn't really think to do anything. At least, nothing themed. I read a little, watched some youtube videos and watched a movie. For Christmas this year, one of my gifts was "Driving Miss Daisy" on blu-ray. That would have been a good choice. But I didn't totally feel in the mood and I'm not going to ruin the chance at a sublime viewing experience by forcing anything.

I need a visual so here's last year's out of context:

What prize is love in life's Fall?
Sans love, Winter's all.
It's frost and gray and snow neverending
And Super Bowl Sundays not worth spending.