=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Society of the Rusting TARDIS Newsletter (#11)
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First, I would like to welcome the sixteen-or-so new subscribers to this
list.
Our appearance in the "Seattle Times" has generated quite a bit
of interest.
I've started sending out the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) mailing to
new
subscribers -- if you haven't received a copy, let me know. I'm sorry I
wasn't able to respond to each of you -- some of your messages didn't make
it
clear whether you wanted to be on the list, so I just stormed ahead and
added
all of you. If you wish to be removed from the list, just ask and it shall
be
done.
Second, a thank you to everyone who has sent me news "clippings"
from the
net. There has been so much going on these past couple of weeks
(particularly concerning Craig Charles and Stephen Fry), that I've put most
of the clippings in a separate mailing. (New subscribers take note -- the
volume on this list is not usually this high.)
And now, on with the latest news and gossip:
Sound bites:
Craig Charles was aquitted on all counts late last week. The jury
was unanimous, taking between 1.5 and 2 hours (depending on which
source you ask) to reach their verdict. Craig took pains to thank
the BBC and Red Dwarf people for their support.
Robert Llewellyn has apparently claimed (in an interview on
Australian radio) that there is a feature-length "Red
Dwarf" movie
planned for next year. This appears to be false. He also claimed
that there will be eight episodes in season seven. This may or may
not be false.
KCTS (Channel 9) has scheduled a "Red Dwarf" marathon on
March 17,
18, and 20. FYI, people often ask why our friends at KBTC do not
run
"Red Dwarf". The reason is because thay can't - Channel
9 actually
buys "exclusive" rights to "Red Dwarf" in the
Puget Sound area so
that they don't have to share their cash cow with KBTC.
Comedy Central will begin airing "The Young Ones" on
March 11th.
There is no word on whether the episodes will be commercial-free
(as
MTV ran them in the 80's).
The third season of "Absolutely Fabulous" will run in the
US
(presumably on Comedy Central) on June 12.
BBC Video is releasing two videos comprising the whole series of
"The
Day Today" on March 6th.
Mr. Bean's car is currently available as a Dinky toy.
Scott Thompson of "The Kids in the Hall" joins "The
Larry Sanders
Show" next season as Hank Kingsley's new assistant.
Local news:
This Thursday "Festival Hong Kong" (at the Varsity) will
be showing
Jackie Chan's "Project A, Part II" (one of his best), and
"City on
Fire" (much of which was lifted for "Reservoir
Dogs"). Next Thursday
will feature John Woo's hyper-ballistic "Hard Boiled"
(one of my
_very_ favorite films) and Jackie Chan's "Dragons
Forever". Jeff-Bob
says check it out.
The Seattle Art Museum's 1995 Winter Film Series is running through
March 16th, and the theme is "Classics of British
Comedy". This,
however, does not mean "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".
Call
654-3100 for details.
News is that the Aha! Theatre has extended its run of "Star
Drek: The
Musical" at least through the end of March (or perhaps even
early
April). The theater is located at 2222 2nd Ave. (in Belltown), and
the show (actually two separate episodes) runs Thursdays through
Sundays. Admission is $8 for one episode or $14 for both. For
more
info or reservations, call 728-1375.
March is pledge month at KBTC, so give early and give often.
Miscellany:
News is out on a new piece of television-studio technology that
softens and smooths skin tones (i.e., erases visible wrinkles)
while
leaving the rest of the picture sharp. CBS uses it on the
"Late
Show" and the "CBS Evening News", among others.
Since it wasn't designed for modular television, the Ed Sullivan
Theater has no blue stage doors like on "Late Night", so
CBS had
fake ones installed. Open them and they lead nowhere.
There is a new "Absolutely Fabulous" web site:
http://cathouse.org/BritishComedy/AbsolutelyFabulous/
There is now also an "Absolutely Fabulous" newsgroup:
alt.tv.absolutely_fabulous.
There is now a Private Eye web page (I think these are alternate
ways
to reach the same page):
http://www.intervid.co.uk/intervid/eye/gateway.html
http://electron.rutgers.edu/~gambino/Eye_Net/pehome.html
Apparently it is still pretty basic, but gives you a feel for what
Private Eye is. The intention is to post cartoons, articles, etc.
from the current issue. This is a three-month trial only as the
management has yet to be convinced of the benefit of the Internet.
For those who don't already know, "Private Eye" is a
British magazine
featuring a mix of jokes, cartoons, gossip and (fierce)
investigative
journalism. The latter two have resulted in frequent lawsuits and
large awards against them which are normally met by appeals to
readers for donations. Currently the editor is Ian Hislop (of
"Have
I Got News For You" fame).
Jeff's comic pick of the month: "Instant Piano" #3. Evan
Dorkin's
latest installment of "The Eltingville Comic-Book
Science-Fiction,
Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club" is probably the most
brutal
yet hauntingly familiar depiction of fandom I've seen. Plus, it's
loaded with the most trivial fandom trivia I've even seen assembled
in one place. (Example: "What magazine did Electrawoman and
Dynagirl's alter egos work for?) One has to wonder how much of
this
came from Evan himself. And Kyle Baker's stuff just keeps getting
better and better. (Oh yeah, the answer is "Newsmaker".)
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From: Douglas Adams
Subject: Re: Comic Relief WWW -address!
[Yes, _that_ Douglas Adams. --jeff]
In article Douglas Adams, adamsd@cerf.net writes:
>Subject: Comic Relief WWW
>From: Douglas Adams, adamsd@cerf.net
>Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:29:11 GMT
>
>Comic Relief has just set up a Web presence in preparation for Red Nose
>Day, 17th March. I've just checked it out, and it's fairly rudimentary
>right now, but it could become something really good. Everybdoy can
help
>with feeback, suggestions, offers of help and, of course, donations!
>Please put the word round.
Whoops - I forgot the address. It's:
http://www.worldserver.pipex.com/comic.relief/
--------------------------------------
Douglas Adams
--------------------------------------
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From: Dave Fetrow
There are some web pages for some pretty damn obscure shows
including Fireball XL-5, which was my first sci-fi show as a lad.
The best place to look is:
http://www.tvnet.com/UTVL/utvl.html
but my site has a few of the more interesting ones too:
http://www.biostat.washington.edu/fun/sci-fi-tv.html
-Dave Fetrow fetrow@biostat.washington.edu
http://www.biostat.washington.edu/biostat/staff/fetrow.html
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Here's the latest Dr. Who news from Eric Gjovaag :
Hi, Jeff. Laura and I just got back from the Gallifrey One con last
night, and already there's news on the net! But this is one that may or
may not make it onto Usenet, so I'm forwarding it to you, as I know it
will get proper propogation if I do this. But it looks VERY good now for
"Doctor Who"'s future, and most of the fans there were reassured
by Peter
Segal and what he had to tell us.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 07:02:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Rjm Lofficier
To: Who Fans <76670.1123@compuserve.com>, bfs@pavilion.co.uk,
cheer@isisph.com, COLTlord@aol.com, debi4486@delphi.com,
GaryBlog@aol.com, Kate.Orman@mq.edu.au, star@cix.compulink.co.uk,
tiktok@eskimo.com, TimeLord@byron.apana.org.au, TomFODW@aol.com
Subject: New Who Update 02/25
GALLIFREY '95 / NEW WHO UPDATE (02/25/95)
We just returned from Gallifrey '95 where we had arranged
for Philip Segal, executive producer of the new DOCTOR WHO
show, to hold a presentation (and where a merry time
was generally had by all).
Philip announced that he was very hopeful that he would be
able to officially announce within the next couple of weeks
that DOCTOR WHO is back on line, not as a pilot but as a
two-hour made-for-television feature.
There really is no difference between a pilot and a made-for-
tv feature -- except that they are approved by different people
in different departments. So if a project gets rejected by one
such department, it makes sense to try the other.
Clearly, this made-for-tv feature would really be what is called
a "backdoor pilot", meaning that, if ratings are good, it might
ultimately still lead to a regular series.
We must stress the word "hopeful"; NOTHING HAS BEEN SIGNED YET!
But Philip feels that things are moving in the right direction.
As they say, keep watching this space.
Philip screened a video showing computer-generated images of the
opening titles -- remarkably like those used during the Tom Baker
years -- and the new, unfolding, metallic, spider-like Daleks.
Phil stressed that these images had just been developed as tests to
show the BBC what Ambin Imaging could do, and were by no means
final or definitive.
He also screened a number of slides showing one of the production
artist's renderings of the TARDIS's interior, the console room,
Gallifrey, and even the Doctor's own personal "glyph", lifted
from
THE DEADLY ASSASSIN. Phil again emphasized that these images had
just been created to help him sell the show, and that they were not
definitive.
Philip said he wanted to show this to the fans, because he wanted
them to see some of the development work, and get their feedback.
And feedback he got.
There were 300+ people in attendance, and Philip took and answered
many questions afterwards, often covering the same ground covered
in our material posted on this forum.
New bits of information included:
a) Amblin as a company may no longer be attached to the project;
however, there will be NO change in the creative staff or the
BBC's co-production arrangement. Philip Segal, as Executive
Producer, has the option on the rights for another five years.
In fact, he suggested that fans no longer think of the show as
the "Amblin Who", which may soon become a misnomer.
b) A plan to rerecord the classic theme music with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra, because apparently no high quality recording
exists of the theme music.
We would describe the reaction from the fans in attendance as over-
whelmingly positive. Even the "new" Daleks seemed to be well
received,
if not by all, at least by the great majority of fans.
Philip's obvious love and knowledge of the "classic" WHO came
across
loud and clear, and his honest, sometimes disarming, answers, were
very well received by the audience, who gave him a standing ovation
at the end.
To conclude, we'd like to thank Christian McGuire, Shaun Lyon,
Robbie Cantor and all the folks at Gallifrey who made all this
possible, and made us all so welcome.
Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier
for Doctor Who, fan liaison
lofficie@castlebbs.com
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Here's something pulled from the net that may be of interest to
"Britcom" fans:
The Definitive UK Sitcom List
=============================
CONTENT
This is *supposed to be* a complete list of all situation comedies that
have ever been made in the UK and broadcast on UK terrestrial TV.
SOURCES
The data has been assembled from a variety of sources and contributors,
and though it isn't possible to guarantee its accuracy or completeness, on
the whole it's pretty good.
CRITERIA
I don't care if they're actually funny or not, only whether they were
supposed to be (though sometimes I wonder....)
Not included are sketch shows, stand-up comedy, comedy dramas, or cartoons.
AVAILABILITY
The list is posted on, or as soon as possible after, the 1st of each month
to both the newsgroups alt.comedy.british and rec.arts.tv.uk
It's posted in sections because some people's mailers have a filesize
limit:
each section is kept to less than 500 lines (except M-O is just over at
504).
In addition to the main body of the list I post this Intro file and a file
containing just the changes since the previous posting.
The list can be found via gopher on the Manchester University & UMIST
Information Server ( info.mcc.ac.uk ), complete with keyword search
facility,
in the Miscellaneous category: this version should always be at least as up
to date as the posted version. I'm also supplying the list to the tardis
ftp
site ( ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/ ), but I have no
control over the actual mounting of the list there. If you're desperate
for
the most up to date version possible, I can email it to you.
THANKS
Many thanks are due to Jerry Kohl who has provided MOST of the data in
this list: and he's American! A few other people are responsible for
large amounts of data: you know who you are, thanks, I owe you a drink.
A few whose names I can recall are: Pete Fenelon, Ian Collier, um.......
HELP!
There are still plenty of question marks in the list just waiting for
answers to arrive - let's hear from you!
Please email any contributions to zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk
[...]
REFERENCES (just a very short list)
Books:
Television's Greatest Hits: Paul Gambaccini & Rod Taylor,
0-563-36247-2
The Guinness Book of Classic British TV: Cornell, Day & Topping
0-85112-543-3
The Guinness Book of Sitcoms: Rod Taylor 0-85112-638-3
Ftp sites:
The Cathouse archives: ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/
The Tardis archives: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/
Melinda's list of books:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/tv/british-comedy/books/
Web sites:
Cathouse: http://cathouse.org/BritishComedy/
Tardis: http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/
Newsgroups:
alt.comedy.british
rec.arts.tv.uk
E-zines:
Britcomedy Digest: contact casino@pobox.upenn.edu
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Currently planned for the next Rusting Tardis video night (March 8), at
Round Table Pizza, 5111 25th Ave. NE (in Seattle).
Have I Got News For You (with panelist Salman Rushdie)
Ye Olde Spitting Image
French and Saunders Christmas special
Vicar of Dibley (with Dawn French as a Vicar, written by Richard
Curtis)
Nightingales ("Someone to Watch Over Me")
Coming up in the near future will be a new season of "Spitting
Image" and a
few more Christmas specials (including Fry & Laurie and Lenny Henry).
The next Rusting Tardis Social (March 14, 7pm), will be held at Applebee's
Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 4626 196th Ave SW (in Lynnwood).
See you on Wednesday.
"Dan was the kind of man to whom panic and
fear were
as alien and foreign as green spotted
pseudopods."
--"Formula 29X", Pel Torro
(actually Robert
Lionel Fanthorpe)
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