Six shows in, there is only one show (Lonesome Dove: The Series) that Make or Break TV hasn’t convinced me to check out.  The show’s strength is to take a marginal show like Grapevine and sell it effectively to the audience.  The MoBTV formula is solid.  I can’t see a sudden drop in quality affect the rest of Make or Break TV’s season, since such a drop should have happened by now.

Grapevine is unique in that CBS placed the show on its schedules twice, programming both iterations of the show between two of CBS’ biggest hits.  In 1992, Grapevine was between Murphy Brown and Northern Exposure.  2000 saw the show connect Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens.

The show failed both times due to Grapevine being different from what was on CBS at the time – at least, that’s the accepted wisdom trumpeted by Make or Break TV.  I don’t buy it, at least for the 1992 version – Murphy Brown was a lead-in, and the Murphy Brown audience should have been smart enough to appreciate adult comedy.

Grapevine’s “edgy” nature is probably what did the show in the first time.  A few CBS affiliates wouldn’t air Grapevine and advertisers avoided it.  Those shows don’t last long without enormously high ratings to justify the controversy.  Grapevine was burned off in the summer, a sign CBS had no faith that the show would attract an audience.

The 2000 version of Grapevine looks to have been poorly scheduled.  Airing an urban relationship comedy between two blue-collar domestic sitcoms?  Even with the show’s tone being lightened, it doesn’t make sense to air Grapevine there.  That’s like airing Aqua Teen Hunger Force between Johnny Bravo and The Powerpuff Girls.  Grapevine would have done better on Showtime, where it could afford to be more explicit than on network television.

Even with shows I don’t personally think should be on Make or Break TV, the show gives good reasons why its subjects have merit.  TV.com does not rate either version of Grapevine higher than “fair,” despite the critical acclaim Grapevine received back in 1992 and 2000.  Nevertheless, Make or Break TV has convinced me to catch Grapevine for myself.

The one thing I don’t like about this episode is Make or Break TV relying on another show that, technically, ran for two seasons.  The seasons were almost eight years apart, but this is stretching MoBTV’s conceit of covering one-season wonders.  The list of cult one-season wonders is enormous, so why Grapevine?

At least this is the last questionable choice on Make or Break TV’s itinerary.  I hope the show gets to Supertrain soon, but TVTropolis will doubtless air Profit or Unsub.  Canwest hates me.

Tripping the Rift Season Three on DVD in early 2009!  This release, of course, makes Tripping the Rift: The Movie completely superfluous.

Considering Tripping the Rift’s third season was buried by both Teletoon and Sci-Fi, why didn’t Anchor Bay put out the complete third season to begin with?  Why would anyone pay for the same lousy T’Nuk-is-ugly and Chode-McBlob-likes-Six-fucking-him jokes twice?

For those fans willing to rebut me with “you seem to know so much about the show” comments, I reviewed Tripping the Rift: The Movie and watched maybe five minutes of a few random episodes.  You’re kidding me if you think the show has actual depth.  What a waste of Stephen Root and Maurice LaMarche.

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Super Dave’s Super Stunt Spectacular Volume 1 box art!  I hate posting articles about box art, but the art’s fairly good here.  I like the shark in the top-left corner.

Bob Einstein looks a bit sickly, though.  I know he’s in his mid-sixties by now, but there’s something not right about the way he looks.  If that’s airbrushing, sheesh, at least use an older Super Dave picture.  He looks almost Roy-Orbison-in-1988 pancakey.

Super Dave – Super Stunt Spectacular: Volume 1

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Box art for The Border Season One.  Honestly, that’s awful box art.  Not only is it a bunch of heads backdropped by some blue, the artwork looks strangely unprofessional compared to, say, jPod.  Usually VSC has at least half-decent box art, but not here.  All that motion-blurred text…ugh.

The Border: Season 1

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The Starlost complete series set has been delayed by VCI until November 4 – no reason, VCI just felt like it.  Every time I see that logo for The Starlost I keep thinking “Coneheads.”

In other news, The Starlost is already being sold at amazon.com for half its list price.  It’s the price of the future…TODAY!

The Starlost: Complete Series  

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On a personal note, I recently posted to Canuxploitation.com’s forums about the Canadian TV-on-DVD Roundup.  I don’t think I need to explain what Canuxploitation.com is about, but think Jon Mikl Thor films and Prom Night.  Hell, just think Jon Mikl Thor.  He’s a cottage industry in himself.

I’m already #1 or #2 at Google.com on the subject of Canadian TV-on-DVD, and I think sweetposer.com may be the first site to talk extensively about the subject.  Sure, there’s a hometheaterforum.com topic about Canadian TV-on-DVD releases, but this site may have set a trend.  Whether this translates into people actually reading sweetposer.com remains to be seen.

The first season of the new George of the Jungle series is being released in Canada on October 28th.  The “Jungle Bells” Christmas special will be available as a stand-alone release.  I’m sure the Christmas special will make appearances in $2.99 budget bins within a year, since stand-alone releases are so necessary.

This is on a list of Canadian TV-on-DVD releases as the new George of the Jungle is a Teletoon “Original Production.”  Teletoon has a habit of calling properties “Original Productions” if a Canadian animation studio involves itself with a certain show.  I would be more partial to the new George of the Jungle if it was funny or watchable.

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Hi-res box art for Morningstar’s Villains Showdown and Heroes sets.  Aside from a name change (Heroes Unite to Heroes), nothing has changed about the box sets.

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Some news about The Collector’s first-season DVD set, to be released November 4 through Morningstar.  I admit I missed this one until now, since I didn’t know The Collector was a Canadian series.  Every time I think I know a lot about Canadian TV, a story like this comes and slaps me upside the head for being stupid.

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This is becoming a Morningstar-centric edition of the Canadian TV-on-DVD Roundup.  Ron James: Back Home, James’ fourth one-hour comedy special, comes out tomorrow.  As much as I like the man, I think his “I’m from the Maritimes but I work somewhere else” schtick wore itself out after his second comedy special.  He’s drained that well by now.

Now Stewart Francis and Jon Steinberg, those guys are hilarious.  I know I’d buy a Jon Steinberg DVD if it came out.  Russell Peters endorses Steinberg, and that has to count for something.

Since I first saw Kenny Hotz on Kenny vs. Spenny, I’ve known not to underestimate him.  Testees‘ pilot includes an anal probe, a penis enlarging spray and male lactation, which should make for a hilariously tasteless show on par with South Park.  Maybe I overestimated Hotz this time, as Testees‘ pilot is only sporadically funny.

Testees (Showcase: Tuesday, 9:00 PM ET/PT) focuses on the lives of Peter (Steve Markle) and Ron (Jeff Kassel), human guinea pigs for TESTICO.  Ron and Peter are humiliated into returning to TESTICO as they need the money, missing out on a penis enlarging spray in the process.  Larry (Kenny Hotz) is the lucky recipient of said spray, trying to turn on Amy the receptionist (Shauna MacDonald) with his outsized pork sword.

After an anal probe, Ron becomes pregnant.  Cue a visual pee joke and Ron eating melted ice cream with a pickle.  The “man becomes pregnant” angle seems oddly familiar, since I saw much of the same thing on an episode of The Young Ones.  Ron’s “birth” in particular seems lifted from that show, although I don’t want to spoil the joke for Testees fans.

For a show dealing in base humour, Testees comes across a bit subdued.  The best scenes are all Hotz’s, as his Larry is a self-satisfied sleazebag.  Markle and Kassel are good leads for the show, but they’re wasted on a script that only occasionally reaches the Jackass-with-comic-timing heights of Kenny vs. Spenny.

It’s like Hotz is dulling Testees‘ potential by trying to adhere to basic sitcom rules.  This trap caught Trey Parker and Matt Stone in a vise when they launched That’s My Bush!  Maybe this is a case of Hotz overextending himself, since the fifth season of Kenny vs. Spenny is upcoming.  It’s hard to say.

I hope Testees improves on its pilot, since I don’t want this to be the American Dad! of Hotz’s career.  Testees isn’t the worst show on TV like Entertainment Weekly says, but I was expecting a Drawn Together-like paean to offensiveness.  Of course, Drawn Together sucked its first episode, so Testees isn’t a total write-off.

I gave up on This Hour Has 22 Minutes (CBC: Tuesday, 8:30 PM ET/PT) around the late 1990s, and I haven’t been impressed with the early-to-mid-2000s incarnations of the show.  Alex Strachan has been saying the show is getting better this season, and I guess I should have believed him sooner.  It’s been years since I laughed at This Hour Has 22 Minutes more than twice per episode.

This is the first time I’ve seen Geri Hall on the show, which is sad since she’s been a regular since last season.  She’s absolutely horrible as a fake newscaster – her speech is too deliberate and slow, and it makes the “fake news” part of 22 Minutes seem amateurish.  She’s much better in sketches – her Avery Adams character has its moments as she tries to foster a lesbian relationship with Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

Weak sketches still exist on 22 Minutes.  A Brand Power parody touting the merits of melamine doesn’t work.  Brand Power commercials never shill generic anything, so the parody shot itself in the foot at the outset.  A fake Liberal Party commercial – Geri Hall’s spokeswoman for Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is “corrected” by subtitles – sucks.

Most of the fake news segments are weak, which they’ve been for years.  I wonder why This Hour Has 22 Minutes doesn’t drop the fake news segments altogether, since the show hardly ever relies on them anymore.

The good sketches far outweigh the bad this episode, a quality I was not expecting from 22 Minutes.  ”Raj Binder’s Minority Report” has Shaun Majumder’s most well-known character misunderstand the meaning of the term “minority government.”  Majumder’s delivery and physical appearance make the joke funnier than it should be.

Stephen Harper-centric Conservative ads are parodied savagely (“his body composition is entirely carbon-based, just like a human.”)  A fake Liberal ad trying to similarly humanize Stéphane Dion – he likes the “hockery” and nursed a baby chick with his nipple – is just as funny.  I don’t know if the Canadian election has energized This Hour Has 22 Minutes or if the writing’s on an upswing, but this is the strongest I’ve seen the show’s writing since the late 1990s.

I’ll admit I was caught off guard by This Hour Has 22 Minutes.  I didn’t know the show had this much life in it.  I just turned this show on and expected 22 Minutes to suck hard, as most shows in their sixteenth season do.  I might tune in next week, just to see if this week’s 22 Minutes was not a fluke.

Life With Derek first-season DVD set.  When I contacted Zoltan Varadi of KOCH Canada about updating my contact information and availability of the Terminal City box set, I was sent a press release concerning this show.  I haven’t seen Life With Derek so I have no comments good or bad about this release, but there are far worse shows being given box sets.

The Blu-Ray box sets of The Tudors‘ first two seasons have been delayed until November 25.  This doesn’t affect the DVD version of the second-season box set, which is still coming out on Remembrance Day.  The American DVD release of The Tudors will have other Showtime hits tacked onto the set, just in case you’ve been living in a garbage bag and don’t know what Dexter is.

ReGenesis first-season DVD set.  I never watched this show, but it has its fans and it’s good to see this come out.  Koch and VSC tend to grab the choice titles, and I have a feeling this will sell well.

TVShowsOnDVD.com links to the frightenstein.com boards concerning a new Hilarious House of Frightenstein box set.  This is being put out by CRiTiCAL MASS Entertainment and Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada.  Wait, is it Starz Home Entertainment Canada now?  Whatever, at least it’s a Canadian release.

As a special bonus, David Lambert of TVShowsOnDVD.com thanks someone whose name sounds very familiar to me:

Our thanks to reader Sean Palmerston for tipping us off about this

Sean Palmerston?  The writer for Exclaim! and Unrestrained!?  Alright, he’s a Hamilton boy and Hilarious House of Frightenstein was shown on CHCH back when it had a soul, so the connection isn’t that far off.  I never thought I’d see Sean Palmerston’s name referenced at TVShowsOnDVD.com.  He’s branching out.

Bruce Kirkland puts over a few Canadian TV-on-DVD sets, including Corner Gas, Durham County and Terminal City.  I don’t see how Corner Gas is “out-of-mainstream” since that show is the most successful Canadian sitcom since Trailer Park Boys, but whatever.  Duckman and Robot Chicken are recommended, so Kirkland has some semblance of taste.

Here’s a reminder for all André the Giant fans out there.  Andre: Heart of the Giant just came out today.  Here’s the film’s official trailer:

I don’t link to the trailer to show off the film’s quality.  This thing looks like absolute shit.  I’m just trying to dissuade admirers of André Roussimoff from seeing this film.

Even discounting the fact that this is a shot-on-video (SOV) film, Andre: Heart of the Giant gets everything wrong.  The first fourteen seconds of this trailer are an absolute laugh riot.  Junkyard Dog looks more like Kamala.  There’s a scene with “Sex Addict French Girl.”  Just wait until you see Vince McMahon!

Daniel Gilchrist tries, but he doesn’t look like André the Giant at all.  Matthew McGrory was originally cast as André the Giant but died during filming.  How did McGrory go from House of 1000 Corpses and Big Fish to this?

Only one word comes to mind when watching this trailer: gormless.  Cinematic Titanic needs to riff this, and soon.

Blade: The Series is a nice change-up for Make or Break TV.  This time, lack of viewer and/or network/syndicator interest isn’t the reason the show died.  Here, Blade: The Series was earning credible ratings for Spike.  Crucially, they weren’t nip/tuck, The Closer or Monk-level ratings, so better in Spike’s eyes to focus on the increasingly trendy UFC and launch new drama shows sometime down the road.

After three episodes, Spike TV felt Blade: The Series wasn’t edgy enough for the network. Blade: The Series initially didn’t have a second unit for more action sequences, which is a curious omission in a series based on a blockbuster action film franchise.  Former Spike TV executive vice-president Pancho Mansfield is given a bit of face time, trying to justify not renewing the show.  He comes across as a face in the crowd, and executives tend to have that quality.

Spike’s horrible scheduling ruined Blade: The Series‘ chance for renewal, as Make or Break TV states.  Why would Spike executives air an episode, then air the same episode immediately afterwards?  TVTropolis’ scheduling of Make or Break TV is almost as bad, but TVTropolis didn’t hype the show’s premiere one-hundredth as much as Spike did the two-hour Blade: The Series pilot.

Kirk ‘Sticky Fingaz’ Jones, Blade: The Series‘ title character and former member of rap group Onyx, comes across as intermittently insightful and stupid.  He’ll point out that Buffy the Vampire Slayer took a few seasons to catch on, then complain about how Blade ‘never got none.’  He seems to be having the most fun with his interview, so that’s a plus.

The other interviewees aren’t as notable, although former New Line Television vice president Jon Kroll has a good anecdote about how David S. Goyer’s pitch for Blade: The Series was enhanced by laryngitis.  Apparently whispering made Blade: The Series seem more mysterious to Spike TV.

I can’t vouch for the veracity of Kroll’s anecdote – Goyer admits he had laryngitis while pitching Blade: The Series, but Spike TV was probably more impressed by the Blade film series’ habit of making money.  The promise of making money hand-over-fist helps sell any pitch.

Make or Break TV seems to be improving week by week.  The third act lead-outs of each four-act episode are still predictable.  MoBTV deals with shows that were cancelled after a season or two, so the “will X be saved from cancellation” cliffhanger is pointless.  The show isn’t forcing drama like it was previously, so the writing’s getting better.

Make or Break TV could benefit from TVTropolis’ website identifying which episode will air next week.  Wikipedia has proven a useless guide.  It would be nice for TVTropolis to have a more informative schedule overall, that and fix spelling mistakes on its site.  One sometimes has to wonder what the point of TVTropolis is beyond housing Family Guy reruns seven hundred times a week.  There’s only so much to see of Peter Griffin’s sideboob.