Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/30/26 — 9/5/26


Hi, everyone!

As is the tradition here at the TSL Bunker, this month has been all about getting ready for the annual October Horrorthon!  As a result, I’ve spent the previous few days watching a lot of horror movie and not a lot of television.  Here’s a few thoughts on what little I did watch.

I am still watching and occasionally writing about Big Brother 28.  I say that I’m “occasionally” writing about it because, even though I have a whole other blog devoted to the show, I have to admit that I’m kind of over this season of Big Brother.  The houseguests are not particularly likable.  The twists are even lamer than usual.  I’m still not sure why Julie Chen Moonves is still the host.  This show has been on the air for 26 years and Julie still seems to struggle with the basics.  I was happy that Devens survived this week.  Go Devens!  You can read my thoughts on Big Brother at Reality TV Chat Blog.

Along with Big Brother, I watched an episode of Big Brother Unlocked, which is the companion series that also airs on CBS.  It’s not much of a show but it’s still obvious that co-host Jerry O’Connell is being groomed to take over the main show when and if Julie ever quits.  This week, Jay Mohr was a special guest.  Jay said he was a Big Brother superfan but he did not sound very convincing.  The other guest was Zingbot.  I have no idea what Zingbot had to say about the show.  I can never understand a word that stupid robot is saying.

Why do I  still watch Big Brother if I hate it so much?  It’s a case of nostalgia.  When I was growing up, I watched Big Brother with my mom.  It was our little tradition.  When I watch the show today, it brings back a lot of memories.  Plus, I’m pretty sure mom would have hated this season as well.  This was our favorite show to complain about.

On Thursday, I watched a Rangers game with my sister, the dazzling Erin,  The Rangers won!  Yay!  I’m not a big baseball fan but, as all of our regular readers should know by now, my sister is.  When the Rangers win, that makes her happy and it makes me happy for her.

On Wednesday, as I watched for Big Brother to start, I watched episodes of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.  I took some pride in the fact that I was apparently smarter than the contestants on Jeopardy.  As for Wheel of Fortune, it just didn’t feel right for the show to be hosted by anyone other than Pat Sajak.  The day after I watched, I read that the Wheel of Fortune announcer was kicked off a plane for looking at an inappropriate site.  Yikes!

On Friday night, Jeff and I joined our friend Pat in watching three episodes of a British sitcom called Robin’s Nest.  It was a show about a swinging guy in London who ended up living in a tiny flat with two single women.  The landlord thought he was gay and I thought he needed a haircut.  The show was later adapted for American audiences as Three’s Company.  I’ve only seen a few episodes of Three’s Company and I have to admit that I’ve never really cared much for it, if just because the constant misunderstandings were a bit stressful to watch and gave me a headache.

After Robin’s Nest, we watched a show called called Midnight Rider on Night Flight Plus.  It was a deliberately surreal sketch comedy show that was obviously designed to be a “cult” hit.  We all agreed never to watch the show again.  It was annoying.

SCTV, a Canadian comedy show from the late 70s and early 80s, is now available on Netflix!  I watched a few episodes on Friday and Saturday and, despite being 50 years old, the show is still very funny.  My favorite character was Count Floyd.  I had to force myself to stop watching because it was distracting me from doing my Horrorthon reviews.  However, I look forward to returning to SCTV in November!

As for my Retro Television reviews, I watched episodes of Degrassi, CHiPs, Pacific Blue, 1st & Ten, Hunter, Sledge Hammer, and Saved By The Bell this week!  I’m trying to get all of my Retro Television Reviews for October written in September so I can devote October solely to horror.   Wish me luck!

 

Music Video of the Day: I Lost On Jeopardy by Weird Al Yankovic (1984, directed by Frances Delia)


Based on Greg Kihn Band’s Jeopardy, I Lost On Jeopardy was an early song parody from the master of the form, Weird Al Yankovic.

Today, Jeopardy is an American institution but, at the time this video was filmed, it was considered to be a nostalgic memory.  The original Jeopardy ran from 1964 to 1975, with Art Fleming as the host and Don Pardo as the announcer.  (Famously, Pardo went from announcing for Jeopardy to announcing for Saturday Night Live.)  This video was shot on the original Jeopardy set, with Fleming and Pardo playing themselves.  As you can tell, Jeopardy has changed considerably from what it once was.  The version of Jeopardy that we all know and revere, with Alex Trebek at the helm, would not start until three months after the release of this video.

After Weird Al is kicked out of the studio, the man in the convertible is played by Greg Kihn, in a parody of the ending of the original video for Jeopardy.  At the time, Kihn told The Washington Post that he didn’t mind the parody and that it was his idea to appear at the end of the video.  As Kihn put it, “It was a vote of confidence.  If you’re not well-enough known to be parodied, well, you’re just not well-enough known.”

This attitude seems to be true of most musicians whose songs have been parodied by Weird Al over the years.  It helps that Weird Al rarely pokes fun at the original artist or the subject matter of the original song.  It seems like one of the easiest ways to get a bad reputation is to complain about Weird Al parodying one of your songs.  For instance, just take a look at Coolio (if you can find him).

This video was directed by Francis Delia, who also directed videos for Wall of Voodoo, The Bangles, and Timothy B. Schmit.

Music Video of the Day: Jeopardy by Greg Kihn Band (1983, directed by Joe Dea)


Though he may not be a household name, Greg Kihn has been making and recording music since 1972 and he has a cult following to this day.  His biggest hit came in 1983, with the song Jeopardy.  With the help of this popular video, Jeopardy reached the number two spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart with only Michael Jackson’s Beat It keeping it from reaching number one.

In the video, Kihn plays a man who is on the verge of getting married but, after he has a dream in which the entire wedding party is transformed into a bunch of monsters, he gets cold feet.  Fortunately, his bride-to-be got cold feet at the same time and, when they both find themselves in the same car, they drive off for a life of happy, unwedded bliss.

The video was directed by Joe Dea, who also directed two videos for Krokus and who has since gone on to be a very active television director.

One final note: This video and song were popular enough to inspire an early Weird Al parody, I Lost On Jeopardy.

Enjoy!