Al Jazeera America shutting Down

Medialine News 

       The Cable news channel , Al Jazeera America,announced Wednesday that  it will be shutting down on April 30th.  After almost 2 1/2 years and 3 years after the big announcement that they were buying Current TV from Al Gore.

   The reasoning per Al Jazeera America's website:

        Al Jazeera America will shutter its cable TV and digital operations by April 30 of this year, the company announced Wednesday. The decision by the AJAM board was “driven by the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the U.S. media marketplace,” said AJAM CEO Al Anstey.

   The Network attracted alot of journalists to join it  such as John Seigenthaler (former NBC News anchor) , Ali Velshi (former CNN) , and others , but it's ratings were never as strong  as it's competitors.  It also had problems with carriers at the very start and recently a controversy over a report about  sports players alleged doping, which they defended as accurate.    The Company says they will expand digital operations in the U.S .  It is unknown what happens to the channel space: if it is removed all together, sold  One  America News seems to want it , or Al Jazerra English takes it's place.

2016 Golden Globes winners list

Golden Globes 

  The Winners have been announced  , they are highlighted in gold and Italicized 

Best Motion Picture -- Drama
"Carol"
"Mad Max: Fury Road"
"The Revenant""Room""Spotlight"

Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
"The Big Short"
"Joy"
"The Martian"
"Spy"
"Trainwreck"

Best Actor -- Motion Picture, Drama
Bryan Cranston, "Trumbo"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant"
Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs"
Eddie Redmayne, "The Danish Girl"
Will Smith, "Concussion"

Best Actor -- Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Christian Bale, "The Big Short"
Steve Carell, "The Big Short"
Matt Damon, "The Martian"
Al Pacino, "Danny Collins"
Mark Ruffalo, "Infinitely Polar Bear"

Best Actress -- Motion Picture, Drama
Cate Blanchett, "Carol"
Brie Larson, "Room"
Rooney Mara, "Carol"
Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"
Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl"

Best Actress -- Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy"
Melissa McCarthy, "Spy"
Amy Schumer, "Trainwreck"
Maggie Smith, "The Lady in the Van"
Lily Tomlin, "Grandma"

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Dano, "Love & Mercy"
Idris Elba, "Beasts of No Nation"
Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies"
Michael Shannon, "99 Homes"
Sylvester Stallone, "Creed"

Best Supporting Actress
Jane Fonda, "Youth"
Jennifer Jason Leigh, "The Hateful Eight"
Helen Mirren, "Trumbo"
Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs"
Alicia Vikander, "Ex Machina"

Best Director
Todd Haynes, "Carol"
Alejandro González Iñárritu, "The Revenant"
Tom McCarthy, "Spotlight"
George Miller, "Mad Max: Fury Road"
Ridley Scott, "The Martian"

Best Screenplay
Emma Donoghue, "Room"
Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer, "Spotlight"
Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, "The Big Short"
Aaron Sorkin, "Steve Jobs"
Quentin Tarantino, "The Hateful Eight"

Best Original Score
Carter Burwell, "Carol"
Alexandre Desplat, "The Danish Girl"
Ennio Morricone, "The Hateful Eight"
Daniel Pemberton, "Steve Jobs"
Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto, "The Revenant"

Best Original Song
"Love Me Like You Do" (from "50 Shades of Grey")
"One Kind of Love" (from "Love & Mercy")
"See You Again" (from "Furious 7")
"Simple Song #3" (from "Youth")
"Writing's on the Wall" (from "Spectre")

Best Foreign Language Film
"The Brand New Testament"
"The Club"
"The Fencer"
"Mustang"
"Son of Saul"

Best Animated Feature Film
"Anomalisa"
"The Good Dinosaur"
"Inside Out"
"The Peanuts Movie"
"Shaun the Sheep Movie"

 TV stuff  after the Jump 

The Lookback: The Charlie Brown Lookback : It's the Girl in the Red Truck

Peanuts the  Lookback 
                                          

    Happy New Year, and welcome back to our Charlie Brown specials Lookbacks  this is our 12th installment. "It's the Girl in the Red  Truck , Charlie Brown"  It's the 32nd special related to the Peanuts specials   it aired on CBS on September 27 , 1988.
       The first noticeable difference to this special is that you see a live action desert and  a live-action pick up truck .
                                                       

                                            Did we pick up the wrong special ?/ copyright Peanuts
          Then we see Spike , Snoopy's brother, and this will be about him  he is not a live-action dog it's back to cartoon world for this. Spike  lives inside a live-action catcus. ( words we never thought would be uttered in the English language)  and that brings us back to the live-action world.   This was all before the name of the special was introduced.   With Charlie Brown and Snoopy (ok so we will see them then?)  Back in Charlie Brown land , Snoopy gets a letter from his brother Spike.  Where Spike writes what he does on his days like take a long desert walk,  Spike, also learns French daily by cassette (aww the 80's).  One day , the highlight of this day was he waved at a girl driving  a red truck and she waved back. (awww middle school)  He sets alarm for early to make sure he can see her again.    Her truck brakes down in front of  Spike and the French tape very conveniently asks the right questions.  She talks to Spikes , fixes her truck and asks Spike if he would like to come with her.
                                                         

                                                   Comes fully loaded with cartoon seat belts / copyright peanuts

  She takes  Spike to a restaurant   that Spike apparently is the best customer at the restaurant (Snoopy has an interesting family) says the owner, Molly.   Also the girl's name is Jenny and she wants to be  a  jazz dancer , she is an aerobics instructor.   They go to her place ,when her boyfriend , Jeff, comes over, he sees Spike and thinks he's a wild animal. (unphased by the cartoon thing though, and very causal if a wild animal is around you)  Jeff tells Jenny that he set up a Jazz dance audition in a movie. for her , but it clashes with her aerobics teaching this upsets Jenny.  She says she not ready to leave everyone she teaches  and the area itself.  Jeff talks with Spike (honestly, they need these folks to keep some sound , since Spike doesn't talk)
                                                   

       
                                         Sitting on the dock of the bay/ copryight peanuts

more after the jump

The Lookback : Nickmas and Disney's One Saturday Christmas :Doug

The  Lookback 

   To keep our ratings ummmm we have ratings? This time we look at Doug (if your name is Doug we aren't looking at you , don't worry). Our title gives away a clue but we'll get to that later. Let's star.
"Doug's Christmas Story" is  a season 4 episode of Nickeloden's  series Doug and honestly , it's  a very unorthodox Christmas episode.
  Doug  starts with telling us that something bad happened starting two days before Christmas. The other kids are playing on a frozen over pond when the ice starts to crack as thin ice does. Doug's dog ,Pork Chop, sees Bebe Bluff about to go near where the nice is cracking and he tries to stop her but it doesn't work and continues on when  he bites her leg to move her away. But instead of being hailed hero dog  , Pork Chop is accused of attacking Bebe . Even Doug  keeps with the accusation.
                                                              
                                          "Bad dog!, get into your ...igloo?, what?". copyright Viacom
        Porkchop tries telling Doug that it's not what it seems (the dog doesn't talk ... he more mimes it ... cartoon logic) but for now that doesn't work.   The former mayor (this show really does hold continuity well) is hosting  a radio show when he gets a caller who talks about the girl that got attacked. (This is before the internet messed up lives...radio did)   Doug comes back home and notices a circus of media and cops at his house.

                                                          
           We are tough on crime in this town, we arrested 8 1st graders yesterday and a hamster/ copyright Viacom 
  Just like a real life politician the former mayor is also their trying to score some publicity points (or a jerk) and having the dog put away for good.   Meanwhile Mr.Bluff, BeBe's dad, is pressing charges against Porkchop . (What the heck ...what kind of town is this ... I am not paying taxes in Bluffington ...nevermind)  Doug tires a petition to help save his dog  , and besides the current Mayor's husband (she's away) signs it and everyone else chooses not to because it's a town full of jerks.  Doug decides to see Bebe  who is in the hospital ,but her father is un reasonable. (and apparently hates dogs for not having money or knowing what money is )
            For Chirstmas eve , there will be a trial , (they took the whole ..right to a speedy trial literally) Porkchop tries again to  explain to Doug what really happened.   Bebe is hauled into the courtroom in   a wheel chair ,  Doug stands up for his dog  (silly Doug wants to do things the right way) .  At the lake Porkchop starts getting relied up when Bebe this time falls into the ice  and Porkchop leaps to save her.

                                                      
                              The media is fickle , copyright Viacom
     Pork Chop is acquitted and the next day the townspeople come over and apologized (as they should)  including the Bluffs.
  That's the episode  anyway it's umm the strangest thing ever ...it's more the episode itself took place at Christmas but Christmas is really not the full theme of the episode which is interesitng to say the least.
   Tune in next  time when... (ppsst whisper whisper) oh yeah that oh well ready for more?  Join me after the Jump.

METV announces their Winter schedule

Classics

 
   Last week , we had the Antenna TV schedule , winter schedule now METV has as well. If you missed Patty Duke from Antenna TV the show will now air on METV weekday mornings at 6amet/5c  and this show hasn't been on TV in a while  "Mama's Family" comes to weeknights at 6pm/5c.
   
     Weekdays   all times ET/PT
5:00am  Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C
5;30am  The Donna Reed Show
6am  The Patty Duke Show (new to line up)
6:30am  I Love Lucy
7amet      The Brady Bunch
7:30am  Petticoat Junction
8amet     The Beverly Hillbillies
8:30am  The Beverly  Hillbillies
9am    Perry Mason
10am    Matlock
11am   Qunicy, M.E
12PM   The Rockford Files
1PM   Gunsmoke
2PM   Bonzana
3PM   The Rifleman
3:30   The Rifleman
4pm    Emergency!
5pm    CHIPs   (replaces Emergency!)
6pm  Mama's Family
6:30pm Mama's Family (new to line up)
7PM   M*A*S*H
7:30PM  M*A*S*H
8PM    The Andy Griffith Show /Gilligan's Island (in areas where other station has rights to Andy)
8:30pm  The Andy Griffith Show
9PM   Happy Days
9:30   Laverne and Shirley
10pm   Hogan's Heroes
10:30pm  Hogan's Heros
11p  Carol Burnett and Friends
11:30pm Perry Mason
12:30am  Mystery Movie (new)
2:30am  Night Gallery
3am  The Alfred Hitchock Hour
4am  Thriller

Weekends after the jump

Antenna TV releases winter 2016 schedule

Antenna TV   Classics 

   Antenna TV has announced their winter schedule . Of note they have added reruns of the Tonight Show Starting Johnny Carson  full episodes, not the  highlights or best of.   That will air in late night at 11pmet  and  also at 2amet and weekends  10pmet and 1:30amet.  Other  shows being added are  : "Mork and Mindy" , "Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) ,Dear  John , which gets a late night slot and Sundays . It starts January 1st  Full line up below:

Weekdays  all times ET
5AMET  Burns and Allen Show
5:30amet  Burns and Allen Show
6AMET  McHale's Navy (replaces  The Jack Benny Program)
6:30AMET   McHale's Navy (replaces  The Jack Benny Program)
7AMET  Mister ED
7:30amet  Mister ED
8amet   Father Knows Best
8:30amet Father Knows Best
9amet  Hazel
9;30amet Hazel
10amet  Dennis the Menace
10:30amet Dennis the Menace
11amet  Leave it To Beaver
11:30am Leave it To Beaver
12pmet   Bewitched
12:30pmet  Bewitched
1pmet    I Dream of Jeannie
1:30pmet  I Dream of Jeannie
2PMET  Green Acres
2:30pm Green Acres
3pmet   Three's Company
3:30pmet  Three's  Company
4pmet    One Day at a Time  (replaces  Mr.Belvedere )
4:30PM  One Day at A Time  (replaces Mr.Belvedre)
5PMET  Mork and Mindy (replaces Too Close for Comfort)
5:30pmet  Mork and Mindy (replaces Too Close for Comfort)
6pmet    Sanford and Son
6:30pmet  Sanford and Son
7pmet   Good Times
7:30pmet Good Times
8PMET   The Jeffersons
8:30pmet The Jeffersons
9pmet   All in The Family
9:30pmet All in The Family
10pmet   Family Ties
10:30pmet  Family Ties
11pmet  Johnny Carson 80's/90's  (replaces  One Day at A Time , which moved to 4et)
12amet  Barney Miller
12:30amet Barney Miller
1amet  Newhart
1:30amet Newhart
2amet  Johnny Carson  80's /90's  (replaces  Doogie Howser M.D)
3amet   Three's Company
3:30am Three's Company
4amet  Dear John (replaces Maude)
4:30am  Dear John (replaces Maude)

weekends after the Jump

The Christmas Lookback: A Chipmunk Christmas

Christmas  The Flashback 

   Today's  post must be read in a high pitched squeaky voice... ok we are a kidding (maybe)  we are doing a lookback at A Chipmunk Christmas . It first appeared on NBC , who also aired the 80's Saturday Morning cartoon (which we looked at before ) , actually this came out less than 2 years before the series started.  It was created by Ross Bagdasarian JR, the son of the creator of the Chimpunks.   Also animated by Chuck Jones.
        The special starts with a sick child named Tommy (who has  unnamed cartoon sickness ) where the doctor says the outlook is not good. Then it goes over to the Chipmunks (wait, do we capitalize them or not ? darn it )  where they are singing "It's beginning to Look A Lot like  Christmas".

 "Not sure you did that right, Dave"

      Alvin doesn't like the idea of having to work on Christmas (Dave was latter visited by 3 ghosts that night)  , but he is easily bribed by getting to play is harmonica. (Darn Union rules)  The Chipmunks (really is this capitalized or not?)  go window shopping . Alvin shows his harmonica another harmonica. (what?)  This is what connects  that boy who was introduced in the beginning to the Chipmunks. (capt... never mind)  When Alvin overhears the boy's sister talking about how much Tommy really wants that harmonica. He also overhears the mother saying that Tommy is very very sick.  Alvin follows to the two just in case he hears anymore , I guess. 

          

The kid seems to be an Alvin Fan. where are the Simon fans? / Copyright  

    Alvin  visits Tommy (that's why he kept following the mother and sister to see where they lived.. that makes sense in context)  and gives him his harmonica.  Now a Chipmunks Christmas song break. (Otherwise this wouldn't be a Chipmunks special)  Alvin says he has to save his money to get a new harmonica after Christmas.  But then fate takes over (or mean writers)  and Dave announces that they get to play for a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve. (That doesn't sound so bad) They want Alvin to do a harmonica solo.  Alvin then decides he has to make money quick  to buy a new one. 

 Have your picture taken for 25 cents what a deal!/ Copyright 

You don't have to pay us 25 cents more after the Jump 

The Lookback : One Saturday Christmas: Pepper Ann : A Kosher Christmas

The Flashback  Christmas 

     This time we delve in to  Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC line up for  a look at some Holiday episodes .  Pepper Ann is one of my favorite toons from One Saturday Morning  and still is now so let's lookback at the Holiday episode called "A Kosher Christmas"
 
  Pepper Ann is giving a report in class about her recent holiday experience.  Her mother celebrates Hanukkah  and her  father celebrates Christmas and this becomes the focus of our episode.  At a school play Pepper Ann begs to play both Hanukkah and Christmas to her teacher's dismay.  Meanwhile her friends, Milo and Nikki have holiday plans to go to Hawaii with his father in Milo's case and Nikki to help those less fortunate.  Pepper Ann though  feels stressed to have to remember the lines  while also doing her Hanukkah activities
                                                        .

                                           I don't care... I want that hat / copyright Disney
   
      Milo's plans have been shattered  and he won't be go to Hawaii to see his dad, so instead has to deliver muffins baskets for his Mother and Step-Father.  While Nikki is  beginning to feel slightly over stressed on all work she's been doing.  (Holidays are stressful for children now)   There' s a montage of Pepper Ann doing all her holiday play practicing and preparing for the holidays.  On play day she messes up her line (dressed a a menorah and sings a Christmas song instead) her grandmother is hyperventilating and overhears her mother and father saying "she's going to choose " and she thinks this about her having to choose between Hanukkah or Christmas.    Since the show is normal  two eleven minute episode segments we have a full length this time so part 2 is where we see Pepper Ann trying to pick between the two holidays. (The Holiday Choice : coming to the CW)
        There's  a montage of Pepper Ann celebrating both holidays  as she writes  the thing she likes on a list to compare the two holidays and it ends in a tie.( While Presidents Day doesn't score well)

                                                       

                       for a better look at her list click here  / "Rudolph" interesting/ copyright Disney

      It's Christmas Day (yay! where my .... oh wait nevermind)   and Pepper Ann visits  Nikki at the soup kitchen where she is helping out. Pepper Ann still bothered she can't make up her mind while Nikki is feeling un happy.(Holidays really killed her)  Milo takes a break and talks with some down on their luck laid off workers. Pepper Ann  walks home and annoyed by a singing Christmas Tree and menorah (makes sense in context?)  and realizes that she is not going to choose a holiday after all.   She finds out that it was a misunderstanding that she had to choose a holiday it was more about her Grandma had to pick a doctor.
                                                   

                                                   Ummm what was in those muffins? / Copyright Disney
         Her report in class is finished as  TV news reporter comes into the classroom to honor Milo for helping those less fortunate   he says that  Nikki really deserves it  for all her hard work.  By the end all the friends go on the trip to Hawaii.(Hawaii the Holiday State)

    That's our lookback  it's a good episode for the holidays as we follow Pepper Ann, Milo, and Nikki's  holidays and what they learn from them.

  Tune in next time , but first we we need a nap , seeing talking Christmas tree and a menorah playing golf with the Easter Bunny again.