Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Guest Post Celebrating 20 Years of Must See TV
Guest Post Celebrating 20 Years of Must See TV
Greetings, Children of the ’90s! My name is Frank Anthony Polito and I’m the author of the recently-released novel Lost in the ’90s.
One of my favorite (and long forgotten) TV shows will actually turn 20 this coming August. How many of you Children of the ’90s remember the FOX drama The Heights featuring teen heart throb and singing sensation Jamie Walters -- who later appeared on Beverly Hills, 902010 as Ray Pruit?The Heights focused on a fictional band called (what else?) “The Heights” and starred Walters as lead singer Alex O’Brien. The show also featured Charlotte Ross, then known for her Emmy nominated role as troubled teen Eve Donovan on Days of our Lives. Take a look at a scene from The Heights’ first episode:
While we’re on the topic of 20-year anniversaries... Here are a few other TV classics that also debuted in 1992. How many of these shows do you Children of the ’90s remember watching when you were growing up?
Barney & Friends - First airing on April 6, 1992, and featuring everybody’s favorite singing purple T-Rex. This show served as the babysitter to many a Child of the ’90s!
Goof Troop - Single father, Goofy, moves back to his hometown of Spoonerville with 11-year-old son, Max. The show premiered on April 20, 1992 on The Disney Channel and was adapted into a feature film A Goofy Movie in 1995.
Melrose Place - This steamy primetime soap centered around a group of 20-somethings living in the same West Hollywood apartment complex, and was recently revived (and soon-after canceled) by The CW. Episodes began airing on July 8, 1992.
California Dreams - another show about a band, this multi-ethnic teen-oriented sitcom aired on Saturday mornings on NBC beginning on September 12, 1992. Check out the pilot episode below:
Hard to believe it’s been 20 years! Where has the time gone?
FRANK ANTHONY POLITO is an award-winning author and playwright. He received his BFA in Theatre from Wayne State University and his MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon. He grew up in the Detroit suburb of Hazel Park and currently resides in Sunnyside, Queens, NY.
LOST IN THE ’90s tells the story of a teenage boy from 2012 who travels back in time to April 1994, on the eve of Kurt Cobain’s suicide. There, he meets his teenage parents and helps them fall in love so that he can born. (Think of it as a ’90s Back to the Future without Doc Brown or the DeLorean.) The book is chock-full of ’90s pop culture and musical references, including the #1 hit tune from November 1992, “How Do You Talk to an Angel” which plays an integral role in the plot.
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Saturday, February 4, 2017
Guest Post 90s TV BFFs
Guest Post 90s TV BFFs
Welcome to yet another installment in this series of Children of the 90s guest blogs! We have several pieces in the works and we are still reviewing applications, so if you are interested in contributing to Children of the 90s, shoot us an email to childrenofthe90s@gmail.com!
Guest blogger Lauren of The Unprofessional Critic has put together a great list of 90s TV BFFs for your reading enjoyment. You can check out her blog at http://unprofessionalcritic.blogspot.com, on Facebook at The Unprofessional Critic, and on Twitter at @unprocritic.
90s TV BFFs
Ah, BFFs. They may not get along 100% of the time, but theyre bonded for life (or at least until cancellation). And in the 1990s, best friends were dominating the airwaves. Behold, five of my favorite dynamic duos:
1. Wayne and Garth ("Waynes World," Saturday Night Live)
As a kid I totally wanted Wayne and Garths lifestyle: how cool would it be to co-host a TV show with your best friend? Needless to say, I didnt understand until much later that they lived in a suburb. With their parents. Still, whether they were shouting out their theme song, freaking out over Aerosmith, or spouting impromptu haikus, these two always had fun together. Excellent!
2. Felicity and Sally (Felicity)
Felicity premiered my freshman year of college and my roommates and I were obsessed. We were also college freshmen in a big city! And we also wore dorky sweaters! True, Felicity and her chief confidante Sally werent traditional BFFs - their audio letters to each other meant Sally (voiced by 90s icon Janeane Garofolo) was only heard, never seen. Plus, as Felicitys former French tutor, Sally was considerably older. But Felicity was guarded that first year of university, just coming into her own and learning to trust classmates and friends in a completely new environment. It was Sally who heard her innermost thoughts, her struggles with relationships, classes and career paths. And once in a while, Sally would offer some sage advice that brought tears to my naive 18-year-old eyes (shut up).
3. DJ and Kimmy (Full House)
My sister and I, die-hard Full House fans even when it descended into the madness of poop jokes and way too many twins, each had our own Tanner family counterpart. As the "neglected middle child" (her words), she identified with Stephanie. As the bossy (also her words) eldest of three, I was Team DJ all the way. And wherever Deej was, her buddy/neighbor Kimmy Gibbler was never far behind. Kimmy started out as a normal (if slightly annoying) little girl and ended the series as a brightly-clothed borderline superfreak with a boyfriend who could only say one word. (My sister claims my high school boyfriend looked exactly like Dwayne. Whatever.) But how can you not love a best friend who buys you a rad lavender sequined baseball cap? If I were Kimmy, however, I would have been thrilled with that impromptu hash-brown birthday cake. Pass the ketchup!
4. Beavis and Butt-head (Beavis and Butt-head)
As a 14-year-old misanthrope without a drivers license, in a decade where ironic snark was the name of the game, my late nights were spent in front of our ancient basement TV, hand poised over the Off button in case my mom caught me watching my two favorite shows: The State and Beavis and Butt-head. (Will Smith said it best: parents just dont understand.) The latter spent their evenings in front of a TV, making fun of stupid music videos. Sure, they smacked each other around and claimed the Beatles ruined music, but I understood them. We were in the same awkward, bored boat. (And because Mike Judge is awesome, these guys are about to get a revival. Long live the 90s!)
5. Clarissa and Sam (Clarissa Explains It All)
Come on: who DIDNT want a Sam? Unlike the mouth-breathing philistines who populated my sixth-grade classroom, Sam was one righteous dude. He wore baggy clothes. He gamely went along with whatever offbeat scheme or fantasy Clarissa was digging into that week. For Gods sake, he had a ladder and his very own guitar twang! Plus, he and Clarissa survived one very awkward date and snapped right back into the best friendship that was their destiny. I fully blame Sam for my string of cool guy pals with single-syllable names and awesome T-shirts, which began when I was twelve and continues to this day. (When are you gonna climb into my second-story apartment window, ROB?)
Like what you read? Check out Lauren on Facebook and Twitter!
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Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Golden Globes Hollywood gears up for film and TV awards
Golden Globes Hollywood gears up for film and TV awards
Hollywood is gearing up for this years Golden Globes - one of the biggest nights in the entertainment calendar.The ceremony is traditionally seen as an indicator of which films will do well at the Oscars.
La La Land leads the field with seven nominations, followed by Moonlight (six) and Manchester By The Sea (five).
The Globes also cover TV - and this year sees British actors including Claire Foy, Tom Hiddleston and Thandie Newton hotly tipped for trophies.
- Golden Globes: Full nominations list
The awards will be handed out in Los Angeles from 17:00 PST Sunday/01:00 GMT Monday at a ceremony hosted by Jimmy Fallon.
La La Land, which stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, tells the story of a jazz pianist and an aspiring actress who are chasing dreams of stardom in Los Angeles. Its nominations include best comedy or musical film, where it faces competition from Florence Foster Jenkins, Sing Street, 20th Century Women and Deadpool. The musical is also in the running for best screenplay and best director, while Stone and Gosling have both received acting nods.
Its director Damien Chazelle told: "I grew up loving those old Hollywood musicals, and what I wanted to do was to take that form of film-making we think of as old fashioned and see if it could be updated and revived for today."
The best drama film category is likely to be more hotly contested, with Moonlight and Manchester By The Sea the frontrunners. Moonlight tells the story of a young gay black man growing up in an impoverished neighbourhood in Miami. British actress Naomie Harris is nominated for best supporting actress for her role in the film - a part she initially wanted to turn down. "I didnt want to do it because I didnt want to play a crack addict - I wanted to portray positive images of women in general and black women in particular," she told the BBC last month. "So I stupidly was about to say no, but then the director said, Im basically asking you to play my mum, and I thought, Ive never had anyone ask me to do that before, and its his story."
Moonlight is also nominated for best director, best screenplay, and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali.
Meanwhile, Manchester By The Sea, which stars Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams and Lucas Hedges, has already been named best film of the year by the National Board of Review.
Florence Foster Jenkins, which stars Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, and Lion, with Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel, have four nominations apiece.
BBC
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