Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Bohemian Lawsuit


Media Moment: Judge Karen
Queen Related: episode called Bohemian Rap-sody

When did TV judges start naming their cases? In their defense, however, I suppose that Smith vs. Smith or Kramer vs. Kramer isn’t very descriptive of the types of court cases that are being shown, so why not promote them with a bit more flair, right? Besides, it’s all about ratings anyway.

Judging by the case titles for the remainder of this week and early next, the show does give a vague description of the events which, presumably, land the feuding parties in front of the judge.

However, after watching about 10 minutes of the Bohemian Rap-sody case today, I failed to see the connection to either the song, bohemians, or a rhapsody. (Maybe I missed the punchline at the end of the show?) Perhaps by breaking rhapsody into Rap-sody, the producers felt that there was a “bad rap” element in this overly banal lawsuit. I dunno, it's a weak tie-in, in my opinion.

As an aside, if they’re going to use other Queen songs as potential episode titles, they had better do it quick as Judge Karen is not being renewed for a second season. I guess her flair for the dramatic didn’t quite capture the ratings she needed for a stay of execution (sorry, bad metaphor).

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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Two steps nearer to its grave


Media Moment: That ’70s Show
Queen Related: Episode Title: Keep Yourself Alive

Back in June I had already commented on how each episode of Season Eight of That ’70s Show was named after Queen songs. So after watching the episode entitled Keep Yourself Alive last night, I’m not sure what more I can say about the Queen link other than there’s a bit of irony in calling it that because the series was on its last legs.

I can state unequivocally, however, that when Ashton Kucher and Topher Grace left the show, it lost the spark that kept the juvenile banter funny. With apologies to Josh Meyers, Donna’s new boyfriend, Randy, brings nothing to the show and his lines seem flat, never funny, and as an Eric replacement, his character doesn’t mesh with the rest of the ensemble cast, in my opinion.

One can’t blame the network nor the show’s producers for trying to keep the sitcom going for a few another season since it was absolutely “spot on” (to quote Gordon Ramsey) at its peak of popularity.

As the blog title suggests, this episode brought the series that much closer to its finale. Maybe that’s the irony of using this particular Queen song.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

The Ducks are dandy


Media Moment: The Mighty Ducks
Queen Related: features WWRY and WATC

What sports movie made after 1977 doesn’t use these two songs? As I mentioned in a previous post, WATC has become the defacto arena anthem for a winning team, no matter what the sport seems to be.

Hockey was very quick to embrace the songs and hockey movies began to mimic real-life with the inclusion of WWRY and WATC in their underdog storylines. One can really understand this movie having such iconic anthems because the timing of the movie coincided with Queen’s move to Hollywood Records, owned by Disney who also made the film.

The fun thing that I remember about the movie (which was on TV last night) was what happened shortly after the film came out . . . Anaheim (and Disney) launched an expansion hockey team called
The Anaheim Mighty Ducks, named after the movie. For a while there, I seem to recall that the Duck players were constantly teased about having a cartoon character for a logo and that they were, pardon the pun, a lame duck team.

The movie did well at the box office though (spawned two sequels and another two Queen appearances on the soundtrack), and the hockey team started kicking butt later on as well. The common denominator in these success stories—Queen. No, wait, maybe it was Emilio Estevez?

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