This Week in Chuck...

Because I missed last week's entry, there are two winning outfits for the infamous Chuck Bass this week.

Winner #1: While touring Yale and hoping to seek acceptance into the Skull and Bones secret society, Mr. Bass found himself in a typically ridiculous color palette. The chocolate fedora is actually the least strange piece of the ensemble because I don't know what he was thinking pairing that pukey brown blazer with a pink shirt and rust trousers. (And I know you can't tell, but he's also wearing another purple ascot and green socks. Yikes!)


Winner #2: This week Chuck sported a truly fabulous maroon velour jacket, complete with another ascot, but I really thought I should take a moment to commemorate his casualwear; you hear enough about the suits and bowties and ascots. In highlighting his equally amazing prepster wardrobe, rake your eyes over these plaid pants and striped sweater. I know it's not as flashy as his suits (and in no way compares to awesomeness of the bass sweater he sported last season) but it takes a fairly secure man to strut around in plaid pants without a hint embarrassment.



Bonus: I know this feature is all about the wardrobe of Chuck Bass, but the girls of "Gossip Girl" are seriously deluded in their fashion pursuits as well, if perhaps a little less blantantly ostentatious than Mr. Bass. Plus, I figured I owed you something a little more after being so absent lately. So I bring your attention to this concoction Blair Waldorf wore around the Yale campus last week. Yes, she is the ultimate control freak prep, and many of her fashion statements do harken to an older time, but this mish-mash of patterns and fabrics is pretty freaking awesome, even for her! She looks like a deranged flapper!


And, what the hell, here's the velour jacket too! Bonus!

Mark Wahlberg on SNL

I originally found both of these videos over on the Cooler blog (to check out the original entries click here and here) so I can't take credit for discovering them on my own, but they were just so funny I had to share.

The first is a sketch from SNL called "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals" that aired two weeks ago. What made it so funny to me was that I had just watched The Happening and that mixture of tough guy bravado and eager sincerity so often employed by Wahlberg's acting (especially in The Happening) is so spot-on skewered by this sketch. I don't count myself in the camp thinking Wahlberg is a horrible actor, but I can't deny that when he's miscast or trying to play this tough-but-sincere-role, he unfortunately sounds just like this.

The second clip is when Wahlberg stopped by SNL the following week to poke fun at himself and the sketch. Both clips are hilarious.

Top 10 TV Credits Sequences

I know most of these are also some of my favorite shows, but I didn't feel like doing research into the credits of "Rockford" or "Dallas" or "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (although I am reasonably fond of the credits to "Laverne and Shirley" but that's probably just because of Wayne's World) in order to find THE BEST. And to be fair, there are plenty of shows I love that didn't make the cut credits-wise ('Sex and the City", "Grey's Anatomy", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Queer as Folk") or just don't have real credits ("Gossip Girl", "Lost", "Sports Night", etc.) These are the ones I'd be most likely to watch every time I pop in an episode, and I know it's due mainly to the music.

• 10 - "Everwood" (2002-2006): Love the small-town charmyness of those painted stills, and the violin music is acutely schmaltzy - in other words, perfect for this show.

• 9 - "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993-1999): This is probably the weakest series in the "Star Trek" franchise, but the music that accompanies the opening credits is just beautiful. I probably would have been just as happy with the music from "The Next Generation" with the whole "SPACE! The final frontier..." schtick, but I felt like being a little less obvious.

• 8 - "Gilmore Girls" (2000-2007): Yes, Carole King's "Where You Lead" is just too precious for it's own good, but somehow is perfect for this show. From the 5th season to the end, I always made sure I was home, freshly bought 44oz. in hand, to sing along to the opening credits.

• 7 - "Cheers" (1982-1993): To be honest, I've never seen more than a handful of episodes of this show, but how can you deny that warm feeling that comes over you whenever you here the opening tune? I know I wanna go where "everybody knows your name." Plus I like the ragtime saloon photos.
  

• 6 - "Firefly" (2002-2003): This short-lived show had it's roots in both sci-fi and western genres, and the credits song, written by Joss Whedon himself, is fine-tuned blend of futuristic spaceships and sweet/sad violin tunes.

• 5 - "My So-Called Life" (1994-1995): This show so rocked! I love credits full of scenes from the show, and these do a great job of showcasing what a great ensemble cast this show employed. The music is upbeat and part of the show's actual score, and I love that the cast is listed in alphabetical order and that no one's name appears over their own face. That's rare.

• 4 - "The Office" (2005-present): Shockingly, I couldn't find these credits on youtube - at least not as they appear on the show, so these will have to do; they're very close to the actual thing. How can anyone resist these catchy tunes? I'm singing along every time.
  

• 3 - "Veronica Mars" (2004-2007): These ones have grown on me so much! First of all, the lyrics of the song ("A long time ago/We used to be friends/But I haven't seen you lately at all..") are disturbingly acute as the show's heroine has been ostracized from her old friends and is a social outcast in high school, but the poppy, upbeat tune is also starkly different from the dark and crime noir-ish aspects of the show, which creates a nice ironic imbalance. So great!
  

• 2 - "How I Met Your Mother" (2005-present): These credits are only 15 seconds long but make me long to have a usual bar I regularly frequent with my oldest friends! Not only is the "Ba ba pa pa" tune awesome, but the candid shots of the cast at the bar look so real-world that I get all nostalgic for hanging out at bars in college! Which I never really did much! And I certainly don't have any great, candid, photographic evidence of those amazing nights! Boo! But !YAY! credits!

• 1 - "Freaks and Geeks" (1999-2000): The most amazing and accurate and funny credits sequence ever! To the incredible tuneage of Joan Jett's "Reputation" each of the main cast comes in for an awkward and funny yearbook photo where the essence of their character is nailed down in like 3 seconds. I NEVER skip the credits when I'm watching these DVD's. Sadly, I can't find the credits anywhere on youtube, nor can I embed a clip from the show containing the credits, so to see them, click here and wait until the 3:21 minute mark to enjoy! Or just watch the entire first scene - so excellent. Sorry I can't do any better.

Bonus - while searching for "The Office" credits that apparently do not exist, I came across a fanmade set of Office credits done to the "Friends" theme and style. They were well-done and funny and I can't get enough of good fanmade credits. ("Gossip Girl" doesn't have a credits sequence and I am addicted to finding the perfect ones, so I frequently stumble across "Gossip Girl as Veroncia Mars credits" packages and they crack me up.

"Hey! It's That Guy!" Makes EW

So now you know that I'm not dead. Sorry for not posting anything lately!


I know I've missed my monthly "Oh, That Guy!" posts lately. (Actually, I've neglected to blog about quite a few things lately including, but not limited to, Check This Out, This Week in Chuck, Weekly Links, and anything resembling an actual movie review.) But "Hey! It's That Guy!" is on the forefront right now because an article about the many underappreciated character actors made last week's issue of Entertainment Weekly. (Sorry for the crappy photo - taken with my phone camera as I couldn't find a copy of it online and nothing else would do!) The list is comprised of 22 familiar faces, 3 of whom have been previous features in "Oh, That Guy!" - John Slattery (my inaugural inductee), Celia Weston, and Bob Balaban. A couple others in the EW article were on my short list for future entries (like Stephen Tobolowsky, Beth Grant, and Larry Miller - trust me, you'd recognize them if you saw them! See below!)















So to make up for my shocking inattention to this feature, please do me a solid and check out the link over at Entertainment Weekly - it's a fabulous list!

This Week in Chuck...

Winner: The navy shirt with white collar and sailor-style...what is that? A kerchief? Not a cravat, but not a tie... I confess, I'm at a loss. Whatever it is, it makes him look an extra from an MGM musical where Gene Kelly prances around on a sound stage decorated like a ship, with dancing sailors in the background. All Chuck needs is the little sailor hat, cocked to one side. Can you see it?

My screencap knowledge is limited so I pretty much have to work with what I can scrounge up, and I can hardly ever find shots that display his entire outfits in decent lighting, so I'm sorry you don't even get to see the full ensembles. Especially the shoes. I know I've mentioned some of his amazing socks, and his shoes are frequently awesome as well, but alas, can't find the money shots, so I'll have to make do with the focus on his extreme and varied collection of neckware. Worse things have happened.