Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 18, 2008 in Fandom, Lost
There are two things we love at fanboy.com: The TV show Lost and people who write books about fandom! So we’re very honored to have an interview with Amy “hijinx” Johnston the co-author (with Jon “DocArtz” Lachonis) of Lost Ate My Life: The Inside Story of a Fandom Like No Other which is now out in stores. Amy is also currently hard at work on her next book which will examine the evolution and psychology of online fandoms for television shows, and it will be out sometime in Spring 2010:
Q. What was it about Lost that made you a fan of the show in the first place? And what makes it extra special to you?
I knew the show was being made by JJ Abrams and I was a HUGE fan of Alias. I knew he was an amazing storyteller who typically thought “outside the box” – breaking the rules of conventional television storytelling – which has always appealed to me. He has also been very character-driven with his shows – the characters are not just puppets playing a part. They live, they breathe, they make you FEEL something. LOST from the beginning has been that way – stories that break convention, characters that are unforgettable. Plus the show has always been this package deal – it’s the writing and it’s the acting, but it’s also the directing and the cinematography and the SFX and the score. Watching LOST is an all-encompassing experience. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Japanese TV
What’s great about Anime is that for the last 40 years it has introduced Japanese pop culture to a very wide global audience. Now while it’s true that J-pop has done very well in Asia, it’s never reached the critical mass that Anime has reaching everywhere from Russia to South Africa. While I wouldn’t expect Japanese gameshows to inspire the same depth of fandom, I think it could very well open the door to a different demographic that Anime might not include: Read more…
It’s 007 season again and countless fanboy hours will be wasted debating the merits of who was the best James Bond of all time — a sad process of sorting out the pecking order of a sad line up that started with Sean Connery and ends with Daniel Craig. And while I have my favorites in the role, the best James Bond of all time for my money is Patrick McGoohan. Read more…
Long before the Nintendo DS there was the Game & Watch (ゲーム＆ウオッチ Gēmu ando Wotchi) which were handheld games produced between 1980 and 1991. What’s funny looking at these commercials is that the Japanese ad above seems to be much more honest about what the product is, while the American ad below (which is from 1983) uses rather elaborate animation and shows the product in action for just a few seconds. Also notice how the Japanese ad is more aimed at young adults while the American ad is just for kids. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 9, 2008 in Japanese TV
What I love about comedian Ken Shimura (志村けん) is that you don’t have to understand Japanese for him to make you laugh. This little song was sung with the J-pop group Mini Moni (ミニモニ), a subgroup of Morning Musume (モーニング娘). My Japanese is rather lacking by he song has something to do with “eye-application gymnastics” according to my Google translation of the headline.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 6, 2008 in Television
The cult classic TV show Quark is now available on DVD which is great news for fans of the talented Buck Henry who was co-creator of the original Get Smart show along with Mel Brooks. The 70s were a good time for both science fiction and sitcoms — and Quark put the two together in a very clever way. Now to be fair Woody Allen tackled the genre with the film Sleeper, but Quark was more of a parody of existing shows and movies from Star Trek to Star Wars which made the show a fanboy favorite years before Spaceballs:
My favorite John Barry theme is from the 1960 film Beat Girl, but with the current James Bond buzz I’m happy to see John Barry get some long overdue recognition for his talent.
“Very few composers can be said to have created a new style of film music,” says David Arnold. “John Barry single-handedly created the spy genre.” Arnold, who recently completed scoring “Quantum of Solace” (his fifth James Bond score), has a long way to go to catch up to Barry’s record of 11 complete 007 scores (not counting his arrangement of the original “James Bond Theme” for “Dr. No”).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 1, 2008 in Television
Many think of robocalls a recent phenomena, but this ancient 1980 Trix cereal commercial showcases this old campaign technique. I love how the little girl needs to defend her extreme political point of view that Trix are somehow part of a “nutritious breakfast” not to mention her anti-free market views that the poor bunny should be denied a bowl of his well earned fruit-flavored corn puffs.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 21, 2008 in Japanese TV
From the land of the free and the home of the bud comes these two Japanese adverts from the 80s. My guess is that the commercial above for Budweiser may have been slightly inspired by shows like Dallas from that era — while the below Coors ad features music by David Foster and Lee Ritenour:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 20, 2008 in Japanese TV
I’m quite impressed with the staying power that MikuMiku (初音ミク) has had as an internet meme — in fact I’m sort of surprised that there haven’t been plans announced for a anime series, manga or even a video game?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 17, 2008 in Japanese TV
AKBINGO! is an NTV variety show that just went on the air this October. In the show participants go through various game show stunts — however the twist is that in the second half of the show turns into a musical showcase of sorts. So far the show has featured musical acts like AKB48 and the Bad Boys. Here’s a recent episode from October 15th:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 13, 2008 in Japanese TV
How can’t you love a talking doggie? It’s funny seeing these ads from Soft Bank in Japan for the iPhone because they’re so “un-Apple” — the one above is a general ad (with subtitles) and the one below shows off the games available on the iPhone:
Shown above is a clip from the 1978 made-for-TV movie The Return of Captain Nemo which was produced by — yup you guessed it: Irwin Allen! I can just picture the writers pitching the show to Irwin:
“Look I know you’ve got tons of left over scenery from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, well I tell ya what we’re going to do with it: All the kids are into Star Wars so we go old school a revisit Captain Nemo but here’s the twist baby: we add in space aliens, laser beams and have plenty of shots of things blowing up big time!”
By the way least I slag the scripting dept. too much one of the authors involved in this “epic” was none other than well known author Robert Bloch whose credits included writing the horror novel Psycho and three scripts for Star Trek.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 6, 2008 in Japanese TV
Ken Shimura is a wonderful comedian — it’s so easy to laugh at this skit without knowing a word of Japanese. Shown above is a segment from his latest comedy special — below is another fun skit:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 5, 2008 in Japanese TV
Because Coca Cola Light is THE beverage choice of Japanese Flashdance wannabes from the 80s! By the way Coca Cola Light is Japanese for Diet Coke — it was introduced over there in 1984, but in 1999 was renamed to Diet Coca-Cola and in 2007 was once again renamed to No Calorie Coca-Cola. Currently in Japan the spokesperson for this diet delight is none other than Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City fame (although us old school fanboys had a crush on her back when she starred in Square Pegs).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 2, 2008 in Japanese TV
This advert is amazing because 1983 had to be one of the low points for Disney — Walt had been dead for well over a decade and The Little Mermaid was still a few years in the future. Yet what impresses me is that the power of the Disney characters thanks to Walt’s storytelling skills were still keeping the company afloat all of those years later, and cooler yet those characters were so strong they could support a theme park in Japan. By the way if you look closely in the commercial you’ll see a very lackluster looking Snow White…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 28, 2008 in Japanese TV
My guess is that this commercial pushing the new DOHC VTEC engine (which was in the new Honda Integra) dates to 1989. Michael J. Fox is just a little bit older than me, so watching him in his youth sort of brings me back to the future when the year 2008 was the stuff of science fiction.
It’s amazing when you think that the original Battlestar Galactica was just a made-for-TV-movie yet to be fair they put a ton of work into the production making sure that the mecha had that Star Wars feeling yet was unique enough. The Viper was one of the best designs of the show and now you can go old school with this model kit:
“Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the original Battlestar Galactica, this model kit has been updated for a new generation of fans. Newly tooled details, clear parts (if you’re cool enough to cram in our own lighting circuits), and an expanded decal sheet are just some of the bonuses Revell has packed into this kit. Time to relive the good old days – when your roommates went out on “dates” and you stayed home working on a model kit. They never knew how much fun they were missing.”
On a related note here’s a vintage commercial which shows you how to properly play with your Galactica toys (hint: using the garage as a space station is a great idea):
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 16, 2008 in Dr. Who
Ah yes the Daleks are hell bent on exterminating the good Doctor and any soda or beer residue that may stain your beloved coffee table! Of course I know full well that if you’re a real Dr. Who fanboy you’ll never break these Dalek coasters out of their tin case to be shoved under your beverage (and be stained no less!), but instead they’ll proudly gather dust on your bookshelves:
