As I understand it, the episodes (other than on Alternate Realities) were selected by fan vote. I don't know how strictly they followed that--the distribution among series is suspiciously even--but take that FWIW. The animated series wouldn't have fit as main selections, but would have been great as bonus features.

In my office on Friday, I was looking for something to watch for this challenge in the last hour of the workday. I rummaged through my shelves and found a VHS box set of the first season of “Sex and the City,” which I’d purchased for about $5 some years ago, put on the shelf and then completely forgot about. I tried watching the first episode but quickly realized it wasn’t safe for work, so I brought the first tape home and watched all four episodes over the weekend. It was funnier than I thought it would be (I’d never seen an episode in its entirety before). Episode #3, “Bay of Married Pigs,” was hilarious. These made quite a nice break from all the crime and violence I’d been watching in “Dragnet,” “Police Story,” “The Untouchables,” and various western shows.

I have the Q, Borg, and Alternate Reality Sets. Though the only reason I picked up the Alternate Reality Set was I found it used at FYE one day.

If you enjoyed Sex and the City, do you plan to watch The Carrie Diaries? I might check it out, just out of curiosity.

Speaking of what episodes should have been included in the Fan Collectives, I have heard some people saying that even thogh it wasn't technically Q, that The Squire of Gothos should have been included in the Q set.

The first season is different from the rest of the series, particularly with its inclusion of street interviews. The rest of the series took itself a lot more seriously, apparently in response to the feedback from viewers over that first season. Later, Julia Sweeney joined as creative consultant for the final eleven episodes, which I found made a more conscious effort at being funny again.

One neat thing about Alternate Realty is that its episode of the original series are the digitally remastered ones. To date, the only home video releases of the remastered TOS outside of the full seasons 1, 2 and 3 are the Alternate Reality Fan Collective, and the "Best of Star Trek" compilations (two volumes of four episodes apiece).

watched 'Superman 50th Anniversary Special' (with host Dana Carvey) this afternoon - god that was painful - little substance and the cheeky humor was grating beyond belief. I'm surprised how much TV content is on various blurays in my collection. Seeing Kirk Douglas 'sing' in a 1979 interview has been the highlight so far.

Finished Firefly last night. I'll try to watch the movie this challenge as well, but want to work on the checklist a little. I am glad I finally watched it, but I'm feeling a bit tired of watching the same thing. Planning on skipping around for a bit. Tonight, I put in M*A*S*H, a go to favorite.

Planning on going through my TV on DVD a bit later and creating a pile to watch again now that my first one is down a bit, before going back to something long term.

I would actually pay good money to see Hal Holbrook in a one-man stage performance about the life of Superman.

The other day I watched Toon Heads: The Lost Cartoons which was a special hour long episode of Toon Heads from 2000 and featured a lot of "lost cartoons" even though as of today's standards most of these cartoons can be found anywhere, but it was still a really interesting special.

Damn you, British television! Instead of doing something productive today, I got caught into a marathon of the second season of Downton Abbey. It is such a wonderful show, and I just couldn't wait to see the next big plot twist or character development. Before I know it, most of the day had been spent wondering if WWI was going to end. Spoiler: It does.

Well thanks a lot! Way to ruin it for all of us! Jeez, next thing you'll tell me is that the Titanic sinks at the end of the movie!

Funnily enough, the very first scene in Downton Abbey is reaction to the sinking of Titanic.

I picked up a bonus DVD of some HBO shows-the first one of 4 different shows: Big Love, Rome, Entourage and Tombstone. Well, I finished Big Love, but don't plan on watching more. It was sort of interesting but way too much nudity and sex just for the sake of it in it. I'm really not a prude, but I guess I'd rather skip it if it's just in there for the sake of having it. But, I knew going in, HBO.

Watched Rome; interesting but not my cup of tea. Similar problem to Big Love, but at least it's a bit more historically accurate.

Watched about 20 minutes of Tombstone. After 20 straight minutes of swearing, I turned it off. Couldn't get through one speech by this guy at the bar where every word was an expletive. I swear, almost everyone does, but it was a bit excessive. Entourage I skipped as I have watched that as wasn't impressed.

I don't usually have that bad of a run. I like risky shows and I know all of these are rated pretty highly, but I just couldn't get into them. Oh well, at least the disc was free!

Popped in some Red Dwarf for the checklist-needed another country. I caught a lot of these as a kid and picked up the first 8 series in a box set. Just discovered another 2 series, several years after the 8th ended, one being made last year. Gotta love it! I'm enjoying going through these as it's been a long time and I never saw more than one here and there.

Wow, I had no idea!

Pretty sure you mean Deadwood.

I loved Red Dwarf! It was one of the things I ever made a point to tune into PBS to watch as an adolescent. Alas, I've not come across a particularly attractive deal on the DVDs.

Downton creator Julian Fellowes was also the guy behind last year's Titanic mini-series for the BBC. Dude's got a turn-of-the-century fixation or something.

I popped in on my local library yesterday and checked out all three discs of the 1979 BBC mini-series adaptation of John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It's actually truncated from the original BBC presentation, compressing their seven episodes into six here. Anyway, I'd been meaning to watch it for quite some time and this was a perfect excuse to finally do it. I made it through the first episode before nodding off early yesterday evening, but then I got back up in the middle of the night and gorged on the rest of it. Here are my admittedly lengthy remarks in my Letterboxd diary entries:

"Part One"
I started reading John le Carre novels back in 2002 when I sat down with The Tailor of Panama after having enjoyed the movie version. I then went back to the beginning with Call for the Dead and have been making my way through at an irregular pace. I've still not got to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but last January I did see the recent film adaptation and I'm familiar enough with George Smiley and the rest of The Circus to follow along here.

I've been completely lethargic and borderline narcoleptic for nearly two weeks now, so I decided I'd check out this mini-series and hole up with it.

"Part One" introduces us to the situation: Control has cottoned on that there is a mole at the highest level within The Circus, and has sent Jim Prideaux on a mission that will hopefully expose which of the five potential men it is. It's a set-up, though, and Jim is wounded and apprehended. Six months later, we've learned that Control died of a heart attack without following through on his investigation. Veteran operative George Smiley has been ousted, and Percy Allaline has succeeded Control at the head of The Circus.

Much of the back story of Smiley's sacking and the changing of the guard is conveyed to us in expository dialog during a scene in which Smiley is accosted by the gossipy Roddy Martindale. It's an awkward scene that clearly serves no purpose except to deliver this information to us as viewers. Alec Guinness slogs through the scene with strained patience and politeness, though, endearing us to George Smiley by personifying our own discomfort at the relentlessness of the scene.

All in all, though, it's a very solid opening that quickly introduces the characters and situation, and establishes the tone. Plus, I dig Geoffrey Burgon's theme and score. It's got a certain Nina Rota-meets-Jerry Goldsmith vibe.

One little thing: Jim's ill-fated meeting is set for late March. The "present day" part of the story takes place "six months later", which would place it in September. However, it appears everyone is dressed for full-on Winter. Does it really get that cold and bleak that early in London?

"Part Two" - "Part Six"
Having begun yesterday evening with "Part One" and promptly gone to bed, I naturally reawakened in the middle of the night and decided to resume - and ultimately finish - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

"Part Two" tells us of Ricky Tarr's relationship with Irina. We want to see them escape from their miserable world but we know they don't. That entire portion of the episode could stand on its own as piece of short fiction, really. The highlight of "Part Three" is Peter Guillame's "burgling" of files at The Circus, perhaps the most Mission: Impossible-ish bit in the entire story. Though he's only in one scene and mute in that, it was a novel thrill to see Patrick Stewart in "Part Four" as Karla.

As I made my way through the series - which I think benefits greatly from being watched in marathon succession - I found myself recalling specific bits from the 2011 film version. Some of this invited quick mental comparisons, of course. The TV mini-series had the luxury of thrice as much time to tell the story, allowing for a pace more appropriate to le Carre's source material. The film was quite impressive, of course, but I feel that this tale in particular needs us to invest ourselves more thoroughly than a 2-hour film demands of us. Instead of fixating on the scenes that were recognizable to me from the 2011 film, then, I found myself periodically thinking of how much content wasn't in that abridgment.

It's a solid production overall, intriguing and compelling. Its pace is pitch perfect, making sure to explore each part of the story in depth, but not lingering a moment longer than necessary to ensure that we get what's happening.

Note: The DVD presentation is, ironically enough, itself an abridgment, compressing the original seven BBC episodes into six, as it was broadcast to American audiences.

The DVD
For some reason, the bonus content appears on Disc 1.

Interview with John le Carre (27:28) *****
This is the only bonus feature that isn't just screen text. It's a terrific interview, in which the author discusses his original novel, the production of the TV mini-series, his own personal upbringing and the history and nature of Cold War espionage. It's surprisingly dense for an interview that appears to have been filmed in real time and runs just under a half an hour.

John le Carre Biography **
Production Notes***
Filmographies

Meh. These are all just on-screen text lists. Le Carre's biography is interesting, but I'm not a fan of screen text as a format. Likewise the production notes. Curiously, le Carre's interview remarks directly contradict producer John Powell's rosier characterization of Guinness's enthusiasm. Of the filmographies, only Guinness's includes any biographical information. The other actors are relegated to just a list of their selected works.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy entered my Flickchart at #158/1464

Having had internet connectivity issues the last few days has made it very hard to watch streaming videos. My internet would be up, then 5 minutes later, my modem would cut out. I finally got sick of waiting for the problem to remedy itself, and called tech support for my isp. Hopefully the problem is remedied now, and I can actually watch things on hulu, crackle, netflix, and youtube, without having to reload the web page every 5 minutes.

Of the above shows, I watched the first episode of Cheers last night, and the wife agreed to watch the second episode of Downton and liked it better than the first so we'll keep going. We've also started catching up on the first season of Don't Trust the B--- in Apt 23, since a half-hour show comes in handy for evening watching.

At this rate, I might accomplish the "finish a season" checklist item like four times in the same day.

I am looking forward to finally catching up with The Walking Dead, though, so I can watch it live.

What I've been missing this month is Mad Men, which I usually watch either in January or May after I've bought the Black Friday deal. No such deal last BF, though.

Well, an update on my internet connectivity issues. Since calling tech support the first time didn't clear up the problem, I called back, and just now heard from my ISP. A Tech is coming out tomorrow with a new modem, as he believes the problem is in the modem. Hopefully this fixes things, and I can watch online videos again without having to constantly reload the page.

I still need to catch up on Season 2, along with a ton of other shows.

I've been watching a lot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch lately (top o' the pile, and child-friendly) - mostly the Filmation cartoon, which I'd never seen before. One thing I had no real idea about was quite how tied into the Archie universe it is. Having only watched the Melissa Joan Hart series, despite knowing it was all based on the comics - an entire universe I know of but haven't read much of - I did not know she actually also lived in Riverdale alongside Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica and the rest of them.

The second thing that's been striking me, after the constant interaction with Jughead and Reggie and all of them is quite how infrequently Harvey has been turning up. The Aunts are there, Salem is there (does he talk in the comics?) but Harvey is barely there at all. And then today there was a second or three in "Hot Rod Derby" where cartoon Sabrina magically changes clothes in front of a floor-length mirror - presumably the opening credits to the MJH series are a deliberate homage: Good form!

You are right! It was Deadwood.

I am pretty sure I picked them up for around 50. That's pretty much my limit for stuff like this.

There's always some talk about movies that might overlap with this challenge and the forthcoming Academy Awards Challenge. I've been meaning to create a list of such "dual citizenship" content since we first started this challenge. Lemme know what should be added and I'll make a point to include this in the list thread content next year.

Disneyland episode, "Man in Space" - nominated for Best Short Film (Documentary)

Disney Animated Features with TV Series Spin-Offs
Aladdin (Aladdin)
The Jungle Book (TaleSpin, Jungle Cubs)
Lilo & Stitch (Stitch!)
The Lion King (Timon & Pumbaa)
Toy Story (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

Fanny and Alexander - theatrical cut released before the TV mini-series version (Ingmar Bergman's preferred cut)

An Occurrence at Owl Creek - won Best Short Film (Live Action); later aired in the U.S. as an episode of The Twilight Zone

Star Trek movies
Star Trek
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

So, for the checklist, one of the options is a clip show. We all know and love 'em, but I couldn't for the life of me think of one in particular to watch. Found a website that lists quite a few of them here. It's broken into categories, Live Action TV is the one I used.