Stop with the remakes! I’ve said it time and time again. I stumbled on this video clip today and was glad to hear someone who feels the way I do.
His name is Chris Gore and he, like me, despises these Disney live action remakes!
Give it a watch and let me know your thoughts .
Two Years Old
Word Press informs me that this blog turned two years old yesterday! Two years and the blogging continues….
I wrote a blog reflecting on one year and some feelings remain the same. Rather than look back on the entire two years, I thought I would reflect on the last year, which had many milestones! Over the past year, I have gained many more followers, so for those new followers, let me give you a brief look at why this blog exists two years later.
The beginnings
When I began this blog, I really didn’t have any idea of what it would be. In my head, I thought that I might blog about some things I liked. I also knew I would probably write about some favorite memories. I might also write tributes to important people in my life or just random thoughts to help me deal with emotions or life situations.
This blog was meant for me. It was to be a “sort of” therapy for me. I envisioned it as a way to keep track of thoughts, write down stories I didn’t want to forget, and occasionally just vent. I had often joked about writing an autobiography, and in a way, this blog has become “chapters”.
I never thought that anyone would actually want to read these blogs (unless, of course, the blog mentioned them)! Yet, here I am over two years later and I have “followers” – people who actually make it a point to read this no matter what the topic. It humbles me.
Looking Back
If I were to compare “year one” with “year two” I would say the blogs leaned a lot more happy. They contained many happy moments. Looking back, I see how I have grown and learned to deal with certain people, certain situations, and look at things more objectively. I have learned to think before reacting. I have learned to separate myself from those things that bring on stress and make me uncomfortable. I have gotten more in touch with the person I want to be. Looking back, I see much more happiness. Life has been very good to me over the last year.
Musical Blogs
Much like last year, there were plenty of blogs about music. I began to post a song every Tuesday that held some special meaning. Maybe the song was prompted by a singer’s birthday or it was just something I heard on the radio. I admit toward the end of the year, I neglected the Tune Tuesday feature a bit. I hope to be a bit more consistent with it in the year ahead. Last year’s songs ranged from Dean Martin to Hugh Laurie to the Muppets! I look forward to this year’s selections.
Memories of the Past
Nostalgic memories are often featured here. Many of them stem from things I see that bring back memories. Some writings stem from an idea I got from a fellow blogger. Some of the topics from last year included the ice cream man, toys I remember from my childhood, breakfast cereals from my childhood, memories of band class, the Sunday comics I used to read, books I read as a child and to my boys, and the summer baseball games I played in the neighborhood. There was also a blog about Muppets phased out of Sesame Street.
Guest Blogger
I toyed with this idea, and my little brother stepped up to bat. It was fun to tell him to write whatever he wanted to and see what he came up with. I really like this idea, and I hope to get a few others to write occasional pieces for this blog. I am very open to this idea. Let me know if you would like to do this! You could write about me, our friendship, or expand on something I have already written.
Friendship salutes
This year I saluted my oldest and best friend on his birthday. I also saluted three of my friends from school/band in one blog because they all celebrated birthdays in October. Remembering some of the funny radio stories that involved my co-host Stephanie was a blast for sure! Some blogs were inspired by friends and their posts on Facebook. Year three I am already planning some overdue friendship blogs. Stay tuned!
Movies
This year, I did a series on my favorite movies by decade. The idea was to pick one favorite film from each year you have been alive. I was born in 1970, so I did a blog for each decade (70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s). I neglected to do 2010-2019, but now that we have entered the new decade, I will have to make sure to wrap that series up. I really enjoy being able to write about my favorite films, and I found it a challenge to narrow it down to one each year.
Celebrities
Last year I wrote about less celebrities than the year before. I wrote about The Three Stooges, in a round about way, as I went with the boys to the Stooges Festival in Redford. I devoted an entire blog to some of the very funny lines that Paul Lynde had from the Hollywood Squares. The great Jack Benny got an much deserved blog on his birthday. I also wrote about Elvis on the anniversary of his passing. I believe that there are a few other celebrities who I could easily devote an entire blog to, I just wonder if folks would read it.
Television
Along with movies and music, TV tends to be a topic I love to write about. This year I wrote a blog about the classic 1966 Batman show. I also wrote about my favorite TV shows of the 1950’s. For Tune Tuesday, I picked Sanford and Son because of the theme song. I really need to write about that show and some of my other favorites. This year I blogged about the remake of All in the Family and The Jefferson’s which again brought me back to one of my original blogging ideas – “why must they remake everything!?” I also had a chance to talk about one of my favorite Christmas TV specials this year.
Serious Topics
While many blogs tend to focus on entertaining things, some blogs wind up being of a serious nature. I am human. I can’t be upbeat all the time. I finally had the guts to write about the topic of divorce – just to see if I could do it. Death was also a topic. I lost some close friends this year. I also had friends of mine who lost loved ones. Just this week alone, my buddy Chris lost his mom and a co-worker lost hers. It’s a hard topic to write about, but I did.
Emotional Blogs
As I look back over “year two”, there is no shortage of blogs that brought about strong emotions from me. One of those stemmed from a photo shoot for my oldest son. Senior pictures. I still choke up as I think about him being a senior and graduating. Speaking of graduation, my wife graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in April. I felt so much pride for her as she walked that stage. She did all the work, so why it was so emotional for me, I don’t know. I sometimes think I can get too emotional. Rest assured – there are more emotional blogs in the year ahead!
Rants
The blog also consisted of many personal rants. Some I have mentioned (TV and Movie remakes, missing Muppets, and such), but I also ranted (and whined) about having the “man cold”. That blog brought about much teasing from friends! I also ranted about how much I miss record stores (prompted by a record player I received for my birthday). I know I have other “rant” topics in my blogging notebook.
A Love Story
Sam and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I chose to take the occasion of our anniversary to tell “our story”. The people who were close to us knew the story, but many didn’t. As sort of a “love letter” to my wife, and as a way to tell just how our wonderful relationship began, I wrote a series of three blogs leading up to our anniversary. Those blogs talked of how we met and became close friends, how we began dating and how I proposed, and then how we got married. Those blogs were among my highest read last year. A blog followed about our anniversary trip. Sam makes me SO happy and I am sure there will be many more blogs about our amazing relationship.
On Father’s Day, Sam told me that we were expecting a baby. It was SO hard to NOT blog about that!! We waited some time before spilling the beans with our big announcement. A series of blogs about expecting a baby, then finding out we were having a girl, and finally sharing the name we had picked for her remain the most read blogs in the history of this blog! The support from our friends and family has been SO amazing! Sharing stories of the baby shower and 3D ultrasound pics has been a thrill. We are closing in on the due date (February 16) and she can come anytime. The nursery is ready and so are we! We anxiously await her arrival and with it, I will have plenty of things to share with you about being a dad again!
The Future
As I said last year – Not so long ago, I was told my someone once close to me to stop writing. “Nobody wants to read about that crap! It is a waste of time. Stop trying to be creative. Nobody cares about what you like and don’t like!” If I have learned anything from Facebook and this blog, it is that people do care! People do like to read what I write! In the end, I don’t really write for others, I write for myself. The fact that other people read this blog and get some enjoyment out if it is a little bonus.
In future blogs, I will continue to write about things I love. I will write about things that people want to know about. I hope to do more Question and Answer blogs and I will continue to participate in Blogathons. I want to write about how Autism played a role on my life, which I never seemed to get around to last year. I also want to continue to write on movies and music. I will continue to write about things in my personal life (and how it is affected by the arrival of our beautiful daughter). I will continue to write – because I enjoy it. The minute this is no longer satisfying and I feel that I have written all I can write … I will stop. Until then, thank YOU for reading my “various ramblings”. I appreciate you!
Happy 2nd Birthday!!
You would think with a cast that includes Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, James Corden, Rebel Wilson, Judy, Dench, and Ian McKellan, that a movie would at least break even at the box office. Not so! According to many articles on the internet, the movie Cats is a HUGE box office bomb that is on track to lose millions of dollars!
https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/cats-track-lose-71-million-universal/
Personally, this makes me happy. I truly hope that these movie remakes continue to fail miserably! I am SO done with the lack of originality in Hollywood! It seems that all producers know how to make these days are remakes of something that has already been made. Why?
Hollywood should be ashamed of the crap that they are producing these days! I have posted this argument before and I will continue to do so, as it is one of my biggest pet peeves! It has become painfully obvious that all they care about is money, and will do whatever it takes to make an over abundance of it with little work at all. There are millions of books available with original stories available on the shelves of libraries around the world, yet Hollywood will take something that is familiar and remake it with little or radicle changes (a female James Bond?!). Originality is non-existent in Hollywood today.
If they are not remaking a classic (and believe me, you can do an internet search right now and there are no less than 30 movies currently being considered that are all remakes), then they are throwing together a big cast of actors to voice an animated feature with little or no story line (a friend of mine on Facebook just went to see that Will Smith spy cartoon and said it was awful. That being said, there have been some very good animated features in the past few years, and in order to get in on the money, many studios are just throwing crap together!).
If a remake or cartoon won’t work, then Hollywood will take a film that had great success and make …. a sequel! Look at the number of sequels some movies have had!! Come on people, wake up! 98% of these sequels are just the SAME STORY with a twist or two. It is getting ridiculous! After the 3rd sequel, even the stars of the film don’t care – they know they are going to get their paycheck no matter what!
It’s not just on the big screen either! Before Christmas, Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel once again did a live show where they redid an original script from All In The Family and Good Times (they did the Jeffersons last time). I blogged about this before, but I will say again … if this is nothing more than a word by word reproduction of shows with new actors trying to be imitate the actors and actresses associated with these iconic roles, why would I watch it? I would rather see the original. Carroll O’Connor IS Archie Bunker, no matter how good a job Woody Harrelson does! Again – NO ORIGINALITY!
I could write an entire blog on the topic of the content of these 70’s shows, and argue that if it is ok to air this reproduction with a warning about content, then why aren’t the originals running in reruns on a regular basis?! I won’t.
For now, let me just say that I hope that Cat’s loses millions – even billions! I hope that future remakes and crappy sequels do the same! I pray that someone in Hollywood realizes that there are so many great stories that would be perfect for the big screen that have NEVER been made into movies. THOSE are the movies that I want to see! Until then, I will continue to save my hard earned money, watch the originals, and hope that people will stop shelling out money to pad your pockets with money that deserves to go to whoever wrote the original story in the first place!
Last night on ABC, Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel presented a live broadcast of two original scripts from All In Family and The Jeffersons.
I was working, so I only got to see bits and pieces of the show. I will give credit where it is due, however:
First, it was an all star cast, it almost had to be – look at the great people who were in the original roles! Some seemed to fit perfectly, others, well, not so much. Second, the sets we’re amazing! If I didn’t know, I’d swear they were shot on the actual set from the 70’s! Very well done. Lastly, kudos for doing it live. That takes guts.
Now, here’s my opinion:
I understand Jimmy Kimmel’s personal desire to do this. I also understand Norman Lear’s involvement. My question, however, is – why?
This wasn’t your typical reboot. With those, you either have the old cast reunite for some new episodes (like Rosanne, Will and Grace, and countless others), or you have new episodes with a new cast in a “updated version” of the show (Like the One Day at a Time on Netflix). This special, however, was a new cast in the classic roles doing a word by word rendering of an old script. That’s right – an old show, word for word, the only thing that changed was the cast.
I read an article about the reboot and Sally Struthers, who played Gloria on the original All in the Family, basically trashed the idea! She asked the same question I did – why? She stated that it would not be the same without the original stars. I tend to agree with her. Did we really need this?
Hollywood proves again that they are out of original ideas! It’s bad enough it’s a reboot, it’s also not an original story idea! It’s an old script! Sure, you could replace the Nixon references and make them Trump references and they still work. You can also point out that even though the script is 40+ years old, the story is relatable. That only proves my point of this blog (in my final thought below).
The characters of Archie and Edith and George and Louise will forever be associated with the actors who played them in my mind. (I was impressed with Jamie Foxx and Marissa Tomei’s performances, but they weren’t Sherman Hemsley’s or Jean Stapleton!)
Final Thought
While it was interesting to have these shows back with a new cast, I didn’t really understand the point. It was a word for word production of an old script. You know what? If you are going to do that….I’d rather you just air the original episodes. If they were good enough to copy word for word, then just play the original!
Thoughts?
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 