Travis McClain

Incidentally, in the List Thread you'll now find post #3 has a running list of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs that include TV content as bonus features. It's incomplete, but I've listed everything I could find in my personal library. I'll happily update it.

lisadoris

So SG-1 started off kinda iffy. The first two episode were really good and then I got to "Emancipation." I know the writer was (probably) trying to comment on sexism but the episode ended up being really racist and sexist. As I was watching it I thought about the TNG episode "Code of Honor" which is the most racist Star Trek episode ever and I found out that both episodes were written by the same person. That explained a lot. The other episodes have been ok.

Travis McClain

UGH. "Code of Honor" is crazy cringe-inducing. I checked IMDb and the writer in question is Katharyn Powers. That was her only TNG credit, and one of only two Star Trek franchise credits (the other is the DS9 episode, "Past Prologue"). It looks like she's mostly been just a spot writer, with rarely more than an episode or two per series. Lucky for you, though SG-1 is her most prolific work, with 15 credits. Have fun with that.

Curiously enough, one of her earlier writing credits was actually an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard: "Swamp Molly". I never really cared much for that episode, but I did like the idea of introducing us to a woman who had a romantic interest in Uncle Jesse. I dunno why, but I liked the idea of someone out there seeing him that way. I guess even as a young child, I knew I was going to have a rough time finding companionship and somehow that gave me some hope.

jmsmath

Yeah, I think you're right. Plus, it qualifies for the Sci-fi challenge in July, so I could always start it then.

If something qualifies for another challenge, I always seem to hold off on it telling myself I'll watch it later, but I usually don't follow through.

KaBluie

Here's some more:

Blazing Saddles - 30th Anniversary Special Edition
"Black Bart" (1975) TV Pilot

Revenge Of The Nerds - Panty Raid Edition
"Revenge Of The Nerds" (1991) TV Pilot

The Wizard of Oz - Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition
"The Dreamer Of Oz" (1990) TV Movie

LorenzoL

I started with "The League" S1 for this challenge and after the first episode, I'm in love with the show. This show is raunchy but so on point about many things and using Fantasy Football as the background for their adventures is the icing on the cake.

Ash Ketchum

I started with two episodes of "Bonanza" from the 3rd season box set and then re-watched one with audio commentary by the guest star, Lisa Lu. That episode, "Day of the Dragon," had an Asian theme and two other prominent Asian guest stars, aside from Lu. Lu talks about what a great experience it was for her and her co-stars and brings up some interesting behind-the-scenes aspects of the Asian-American experience in Hollywood in the 1960s. The episode itself is remarkably free of stereotype and tells a very moving story of a Chinese girl (Lu) brought to the U.S. by a fleeing warlord and then kidnapped and how she winds up at the Cartwrights who treat her very well, forcing quite a confrontation when the warlord (played by Richard Loo) shows up looking for her. There's also a Chinese doctor in Virginia City played by Philip Ahn.

TV westerns back then often included the occasional Asian storyline (as when Sessue Hayakawa played a traveling samurai in an episode of "Wagon Train" and Miyoshi Umeki played a Geisha on an episode of "Rawhide") and there were plenty of Asian actors available to be cast. Which makes it inexcusable when they'd cast non-Asians in Asian roles as when Marlo Thomas played a Chinese girl on a later episode of "Bonanza."

In any event, I plan to be watching a lot of these for this Challenge.

davidh777

So you're thinking of like failed TV pilots that are added as bonus content to the movie that inspired them? Nice idea!

I totally do that. I did a Chuck marathon as my Make Your Own then had to finish it "without credit" because it was before we had action or comedy challenges.

I've been meaning to watch the show for forever since I'm a fantasy player as well, but I've just never gotten around to it. I did watch the recent New Year's Eve episode for my first experience and enjoyed it, especially since I'm an AP owner. I own season 1 but am wondering if I'll remember the fantasy-relevant info from back then well enough to enjoy it as much as I should.

LorenzoL

I'm planning to finish watching the first season today since it's only 6 episodes but based on the first episode, so far so good. They throw sprinkle of Fantasy Football tidbits here and there but they don't go into specifics. As long as you have a general knowledge of FF (format and players) (and you do), you'll be fine.

BTW, I'm halfway through the second episode and was pleasantly surprised to see Nadine Velasquez in the episode and she looks fantastic! Man, I was wondering what she was doing after "My Name is Earl". Hopefully she appears in more episodes.

elijahmagallon

I too love DALLAS and will be re-watching Season 1 of the new version shortly in preparation for Season 2 starting later this month. Hagman was involved in THE EARLY YEARS - he filmed a 'present-day' lead-in scene to the flashback story.

elijahmagallon

Those early episodes of STARGATE do remind me of iffy STAR TREK episodes too.

elijahmagallon

I love BONANZA. I watched quite a few Season 1 episodes last month but got caught up with Christmas and stopped. Maybe I'll watch some more this month...

Travis McClain

Added. Thanks!

Some of them are failed TV pilots. There are a lot of animated series episodes, particularly on the DC Comics direct-to-video animated features, too. You'll also find a handful of made-for-TV documentaries and specials.

lisadoris

Oh good grief don't tell me that ! I'm hopeful that as long as she's writing about white characters it won't be as offensive.

I've had two Trek homages/ripoffs in this batch of episodes. "The Nox" which is a good episode, reminds me a lot of "Errand of Mercy." You have an advanced people who look primitive to newcomers. They try to tell the newcomers to leave them alone and take their fighting elsewhere and neither listen. I know the guest actors must have hated the tumbleweed headdress they were forced to wear in this episode.

Also got through "Hathor" which is an awful episode that reminds me a bit of The Animated Series episode "The Lorelei Signal." In both episodes the males get all twitterpated and the females have to come to the rescue. In animated form the story isn't bad b/c Uhura really shines but in the live action episode it's just creepy. The female military personnel have to seduce the guys in an effort to retake the mountain and the writers gloss over the fact that Hathor raped Daniel and possibly other men during her siege. There's an Atlantis episode that does something similar only on a much larger scale and it's played for laughs. Memo to the writer's room: sexual assault is not something you can just gloss over nor is it funny.

Ash Ketchum

Make sure you check out the Bonanza homage in DJANGO UNCHAINED. Guess where Django got his jacket from?

elijahmagallon

Oh, I like it. I like it a lot!

ntnon

Arbitration questions: Not that I intend to watch them, but I presume that if the Stargate movie counts, then the various Disney films that have had spin-off TV shows - and specials* - count, too..?

Do special features/documentaries/cast chats included on Season DVD sets count, even if they were produced exclusively for the discs and not the channel...?

BobO'Link

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea season 4 is *very* rough going! I'd read that this was the worst season but was totally unprepared for the pure dreck I've watched so far. Episodes are *full* of the same stock shots (I feel like I've seen the same sea floor crash of the Flying Sub and Seaview at least a dozen times or more already and I'm only 9 episodes in), borrowed sets, and ideas. The Irwin Allen effect is on full display with little to no logic on many episodes so far. One I watched this morning, "Time Lock", is more mash up of Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, and Star Trek. With little changing it would have been a perfect LIS episode and with some script adjustment (i.e. massive rewrites) could have passed for a lesser ST:TOS episode. As a VTTBOTS episode it was awful! Other episodes have the "monster of the week" mode going full blast. I'm glad I have the season but it'll be a rarely watched one in the future.

EdTheRipper

I watched the entire first season of Sons of Anarchy over the past two days. I'd never seen an episode prior to yesterday. Good stuff. I'm looking forward to diving into season 2 in the very near future.

HyperWeather

Of course its only been 2 days but as usual I haven't touched a thing I had planned on watching yet, I'm still watching Downton Abbey S.1, and only had a little time yesterday afternoon so decided to put on the first episode of It's Always Sunny and ended up coming home later and finishing the rest of the season, so I have a feeling I will be watching a lot of that this month.

Re: The League, I know nothing of fantasy football and rarely watch football itself and I still love that show, I hate that it takes so long in between seasons.

Qrusher14242

I just finished Werewolf and am now gonna watch a lot of Gunsmoke...I've been stuck on S1 for a long time heh. Also want to finish the 1st seasons of White Collar and Emergency!. I've been sick the last few days so don't feel like doing much except for laying down and watching tv.

LJG765

Looking through the check list, I have a couple questions.

To finish a season or series during this, do you have to watch the whole series/season during the challenge or can you have started at a different time?

What's a "stunt guest star?" I know what a guest star is, but not a "stunt" one.

Also, I notice that a cooking show is missing from the list of types of shows...that might be a fun addition next year...

Qrusher14242

i just counted when i watched the last episode for the season. Not that i watched it all. I think a stunt guest star is where they hire a well known actor to play a smaller role in the show to get people to watch.

I also noticed they don't have 'Western' as a category either.

lisadoris

Yes those count (or at least I certainly hope so since I started my list with the Stargate film). Someone answered the special features question in this thread, I just don't remember the answer.

davidh777

In honor of the asterisk, I've started marking my entries based on what medium/format I'm watching them in.

Cool. The DC episodes aren't the first thing to jump to mind for me since I have almost all the episodes already, though not on BD.

This was my suggestion from last year. It's basically when you hire someone relatively famous to play a bit part. You need a walk-on country singer, and you cast Taylor Swift. Or Smallville has a ton of small parts played by people with ties to the Superman universe. I was just watching season 2 of Body of Proof last night when one of the small parts was a suspicious cook and it was played by .

Agreed, especially since Top Chef is running right now, and there's always something on the food channels. (Also see my spoiler above.)