Reader mail

John P. Schneider noted that my recent installation of ReplayTV in my living room had forced me to run telephone cord through our kitchen — tacked down with unsightly duct tape. John writes, "Here's a tip to get that duct tape off your counter-top and make Mrs. TV Barn a happy woman. There are several manufacturers of plug-in devices that will run phone signals over your power lines. All you do is plug the box into a 110V plug near a phone outlet. Connect a phone line to the outlet and the box. Then plug another box near your ReplayTV. Connect the phone line to the ReplayTV phone output and you're on your way. These started becoming real popular with the satellite dish users who need the phone line for the pay-per-view dial-ins. I've had one for a few years now and it works great."

What amazes me is that ReplayTV has fallen into the same trap as the satellite-dish makers: believing that it's better to give your customers the best-case scenario instead of the worst case. ReplayTV's installation guide never mentions these wireless devices — which, now that you mention it, I recall seeing in RadioShack stores — so obviously the company believes each of its customers has a phone line in the TV room. In the same vein, dish makers have assumed for years that pulling in local channels is as easy as sticking an antenna on your roof. An antenna? What's that?

Sean Medlock writes, "I got a ReplayTV last November, and despite the inevitable first-generation bugs, it's as amazing as you say. For me, the big now-I-can't-live-without-it feature is the 30-second skip button. Advertisers and network TV executives are right to be scared of it. I haven't watched a single commercial in five months. I actually I had to have somebody explain that annoying 'WHAZZAAAAAP!!' thing everybody's doing now. And without all those commercials, I can watch a lot more garbage in the same amount of time. ReplayTV — it's like a trash compactor for your head!"

Now there's a tagline you won't be hearing anytime soon ...

Nicole Ellis writes, "It was interesting to read about ABC's new program called 'Making the Band,' about the formation of yet another boy group. In Australia, they are currently showing a program called 'Popstars' about the formation of an all-girl group. It's pretty much the same premise as the ABC show (except Lou Pearlman isn't involved). You can read all about it at http://www.popstars.com.au."

You mean, Lou Pearlman isn't involved ... yet.

John Hirn writes, "Your casual dismissal of 'Freaks and Geeks' is wrong-headed. This was far and away the best new show of '99. Nothing else was even close. It managed to be hilariously funny, poignant but never heavy-handed, and realistic all at once. Throw in tons of spot-on cultural references for good measure, and you have a pretty special show. The fact is NBC never gave the show a decent chance to shine. It kept moving the times around and pulling it after a couple of weeks, and never promoted it very well. That's no way to build an audience."

Everybody agreed that Saturday night, when NBC is otherwise airing thrillers, was a peculiar time for "Freaks and Geeks." But the network did a much better job promoting the show's move to Monday nights than ABC did, say, in telling viewers it had moved "Nothing Sacred" in 1998. And recall that Fox's "King of the Hill" suffered a dismal fate after moving to Tuesday nights, despite heavy promotion by the network. Some things just weren't meant to be.

Pick To Click: Camcorder diaries

What will PBS do for its next act? That's a question a lot of us in the TV world ask. The public-TV network now has several prime-time series still running in their second and even third decades, and its latest show for kids, "Between the Lions," is closely patterned on its oldest, "Sesame Street." Anybody who says PBS is liberal hasn't studied its conservative program strategy very much.

But now, a great new idea has come along: "Right Here, Right Now" (check local listings), documentaries shot by non-filmmakers using camcorders. Oh sure, MTV and other networks have occasionally pressed a camera into the hands of amateurs. But PBS' are longform specials, with one subject each week for the next four weeks, not to mention unconventional storylines and revelations you may find unsettling. "Right Here, Right Now" is airing at all sorts of crazy hours on PBS affiliates (in Kansas City, the series debuts at midnight Thursday on KCPT).

The first installment introduces us to Jeanne, a young woman who documents the ways in which the world fails to come to grips with the fact she is deaf. The scenes range from the silly — a receptionist who hears Jeanne's lispy speech and asks, "Are you from France?" — to the heart-rending. Empowered by the camera, Jeanne heads off to confront her mother, who has never bothered to learn sign language, even though her daughter has been deaf since infancy. "I just didn't have another minute to do anything more," says the mother. Jeanne's ready with the comeback: "Mom, how long have you been retired? Six years?"

The next three weeks feature Yolanda, a teen-age mom; Jack, a Chinese-American resisting his parents' pleas to become a doctor; and Jonelle, who is desperate to overcome a debilitating stutter.

Previously on TV Barn:
12 April: "Freaks and Geeks"
11 April: "Star Trek" protests
10 April: Zehme on Letterman
7 April: CBS's loaded sked; "Phantom Menace" on video
6 April: ReplayTV and TiVo
5 April: "Wonderland" protests; Fox hits new low
4 April: "Falcone" v. "Sopranos"; new sci-fi stars
3 April: iCraveTV; BET v. Univision
31 March: Video kiosks; Tavis Smiley; Peabody Awards; quit griping about Oscar

Coming up next ... subject to last-minute changes:
Friday: Dropping anchors
Monday: TBA
Tuesday: Sci-fi loft

On this date... in 1983, with choreography straight out of a "Batman" episode, the former and current Mrs. Carrington get into their most famous catfight on "Dynasty." When Alexis starts taunting Krystle about her infertility, it's war. Krystle jumps her nemesis and they both fall into the lily pool. When "miserable bitch" Alexis tries to escape the pummeling of her tormentor, Krystle shrieks "Oh, no, you don't," then punches her enemy in the mouth. -- Tom Heald

Copyright © 1999-2001 Aaron Barnhart | Back to TV Barn home