Late Night - Andy Kaufman

Andy Kaufman appears on Late Night on 1/7/83. Andy's recently learned to love and introduces his family to America.

The 1985 Mini-Golf Championship Match #1

If I've ever posted a better phrase on this blog than "1985 Mini-Golf Championship", I don't remember it. But who can remember anything at a time like this?

This video is my new favorite thing. In the back of my mind I always thought professional mini-golf could exist but I never saw evidence for it one way or the other. And now it's here in all its glory.

This is the kind of concept you'd expect to see on Adult Swim these days. Except you can't parody it because it's already perfect.



Random thoughts:

• "Rookie of the Year", "Former Champion", discussion of the mental and physical battle, mini-golf - it's all here. 
• The "color commentary" is by Billy Packer - I think that's the same Billy Packer who commentated for college basketball.
• One of the contestants has been working out in the off-season to add muscle mass. Perfect.
• The girl who follows them with the scoreboard! Oh my flavors.
• No windmills? No waterfalls? No nothing? I wonder if that's just how they do it in professional mini-golf or if it just happens to be the most boring course on Earth.
• Why doesn't this exist now?! I would watch!

Tonight Show - Dramatic Yelp Reviews

Tonight Show - End of the Streak

There was a time when I had watched every single episode of Conan (both on the Tonight Show and the show "Conan") but that streak came to an end in November of 2015. There was a time when I had watched every episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and that is still true. Then when he left the show, I watched every episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers before stopping that at 100 episodes.

And up until now I've watched every episode of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and now that streak is coming to an end. (I've watched every minute the show except that one thing, but we don't talk about that. ever.)

I watched every episode of the Tonight Show up to, and including, May 3, 2017 - Episode #667 - Guests: Kaley Cuoco, Horatio Sanz and I will not be watching #668 - Chris Pine and Fran Lebowitz (nothing against them).

My nature/instincts suggest that I should write a long blog post explaining the reasons why and critiquing the show's evolution. But there's so much negativity on the internet, I don't think I need to add to it.

Suffice it to say: I still enjoy the show, but I just don't have the time to spend anymore. I have a free hour today where I could potentially watch an episode but I find I'd rather do other things (I've got a podcast I'd rather listen to, for instance). I'll still keep up with the comedy clips on youtube, but I've had my fill of monologues and have had enough celebrity chat to last a lifetime.

Rich Evans' Blade Runner Audition

Sure Ryan Gosling dazzles in the new "Blade Runner 2049" trailer, but Rich Evans also auditioned for the part.... And he may be just as good.

Irish People & Wheel of Fortune

Irish people experience Wheel of Fortune for the first time. Good craik.

Cheers & The Internet

The internet can be a maddening place, sometimes.

There's a particular bit of trivia from the "Cheers" episode "Coach Buries a Grudge" that I found interesting from Cheers' Oral History. It's about Nick Colasanto (the Coach) and how, as his health deteriorated, he had increasing trouble remembering his lines and took to writing his lines on hidden places around the set:

"Ted Danson: When Nick had heart disease, he was getting less and less oxygen. There wasn't a surface on that set that didn't have his lines written down. There was one episode where a friend of Coach dies, and he says, "It's as if he's still with us now." Nick had written the line on the wood slats by the stairs the actors would use to enter the studio. Nicky dies, and the next year, we're all devastated, and the first night we come down the stairs, right there was his line: "It's as if he were with us now." And so every episode, we'd go by it and pat it as we'd come down to be introduced to the audience.

And then, one year, they repainted the sets and they painted over the line. People almost quit. Seriously. They were so emotionally infuriated that that had been taken away from them."

This trivia is repeated on imdb, the Seattle Times, the awful click-bait article "Secrets You Never Knew About Cheers", and "12 Frothy Facts About Cheers", and it goes on and on.

The only problem with this, of course, is that that line never appears in the episode. I've watched it twice now and downloaded a file of the subtitles... and Coach doesn't say that line.

The closest thing I see is that Coach says, "It'll be like having my old buddy back for all-time." That would make sense - Danson paraphrased the line from memory - but then the problem is that line is said no where near any stairs or a door (some sites claim it was written by a door). The only way the anecdote makes sense is if the line was written next to the physical location where it was spoken.

I wish there was some way to ask follow up questions to understand what the actual story is. I'm sure the trivia isn't entirely fabricated, someone just needs to so some research instead of just regurgitating the same misinformation over and over. Unfortunately the internet is the place where no one knows your name (wah wahh). Maddening. Even worse when I consider how bothered I am by something so amazingly inconsequential.

By the way, "Coach Buries a Grudge" is only in the second season but I'm pretty sure I can say I've already found my favorite episode of the series. If you want a single episode of "Cheers" to watch, that would be my recommendation. It's amazing.

And if you want to feel internet-crazy too, why not check out the never-aired episode of "Cheers" promoting savings bonds? Yes it's a real thing. Don't believe me? Then why is all this text a link? It's real and it's like something out of an alternate dimension. Never before have I seen a modern show from such a totally different era.