You Can Bet On It

Tonight is the last game Brent Musburger will ever call.
Musburger is leaving ESPN on very short notice in the middle of the college basketball season.
If you are a fan of a certain age you remember Musburger for hosting the CBS NFL pregame show along with Irv Cross and Jimmy the Greek.
When he famously said "you are looking live..." as they ran through the slate of games.



In 1990, he joined ESPN and through the years did play-by-play for college football and basketball. I was never a huge fan of his, but never had much of a problem with him either. When people freaked out over him pointing out that AJ McCarron's beauty queen girlfriend is pretty, I stood with Brent.

I even sided with him in his latest controversy over his comments about Joe Mixon.



The one thing I can't figure is why would he leave ESPN so suddenly. I can only imagine that because Musburger stated he was going to move to Las Vegas to help his family with a sports handicapping business, ESPN became uncomfortable with the possibility of a real or perceived conflict of interest and asked him to leave almost immediately.

Day 104

I remember the first time I ever heard of Phineas and Ferb. Chase was very young and we walked into the Disney store and all Phineas & Ferb merchandise was 30% off. I suggested buying him a bunch of discounted items and forcing him to like the show. Mrs. Poop said she heard it wasn't a good show for kids.

Boy was she wrong.

I remember the first time I ever saw Phineas and Ferb. Though we didn't realize it until much later, it was playing on the TV in the waiting room where Chase and the grandparents waited for Julian to be born.

And four years later I was running around Epcot in the Perry the Platypus shirt trying to thwart the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

And now, it's over. After the longest summer vacation ever Phineas and Ferb's series finale will air on June 12th.

Of all the shows my kids watched over the years, no show has been smarter, more beneficial, more life-affirming (yes, life-affirming -- we only have a finite amount of time, and even if it seems long -- like a 104 day summer vacation -- we have to make the most of every day) and more fun to watch (for young and old) than Phineas and Ferb.

We have so many family jokes from that show: when I tell them what we have planned for a day I say "hey Ferbs, I know what we're going to do today" and when we attend a small party will call it an "intimate get-together."



And we ask each other, "whatchadooooin?":



That of course is the adorable Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, daughter of Vivian Garcia-Shapiro (who loves the Mexican-Jewish Cultural Festival), whose family is half "ole" and half "oy vey."

On Christmas, we sing Buford's version of "Good King Wenceslas":



"Nobody's asking you nerd!"

So of course when I heard the news that the show was ending I got sad. Not so much that the show is ending, the episodes will live on in perpetuity on our DVR (especially "Roller Coaster the Musical" and the Star Wars special), but more because that chapter in my kids' lives is ending.

And it's unlikely a new show with as much imagination, creativity and humor will ever come our way again.

So I hope we will all heed the main lesson of the show and do everything we can to make today the best day ever. And then try to make tomorrow a million and six times better.

Friends Forever

Jimmy Fallon reunited the cast of "Saved By the Bell" and I know it's really hard to find on the internet so I decided to post it here.



I guess Lark Voorhees was busy and Screech didn't make parole.

Good Headline, Lousy Details

Former New York Knicks guard Greg Anthony was arrested in a prostitution sting in Washington DC over the weekend.
Cops busted him at the Doubletree Hotel.
Charges say he used a computer so he probably went on an escort site, ordered up a honey and got a cop instead.
Now I really want to make fun of the guy but I really couldn't care less about this.
Anthony is not married, he travels a lot, he makes a lot of money, he wants to have sex so he hires a girl to have sex with him. I really fail to see the giant cultural harm here.
It is against the law though, and unless this was some act of civil disobedience, then he knowingly broke the law.
But he is going to pay the price professionally, as CBS/Turner has banned him for the rest of the college basketball season.

What Do You Give Me For? Frankie Carbone and Louie from "The Simpsons"

What do you give me for Frankie Carbone and Louie from "The Simpsons?"
Actor Frank Sivero is suing the creators of the "The Simpsons" for $250M saying Louie is based on his character from "Goodfellas."
Sivero says in 1989 he lived in the same apartment complex as some of the writers for the show. During this time he developed the character of Frankie Carbone. He says he told the writers about his character and that they based "Louie" on Carbone.
Louie first appeared in 1991 and has had 15 appearances in total, including as recently as April 2014.

That's Much Better

The alternate ending for the final episode of "How I Met Your Mother" to be included on the Season 9 DVD was leaked to the internet.



Isn't that better than the actual ending, even though I didn't really hate it?

How I Met Your Dead Mother

And Ended Up With the Woman I Really Wanted the Entire Time

I really don’t know how to feel about the series finale of “How I Met Your Mother”. So let me start with a big sweeping generalization.

Women ruin everything, but especially sitcoms. When sitcoms are designed only for men they are funny. When sitcoms are designed to appeal to the female audience too, they become sappy and every couple that’s “supposed” to be together ends up together. It may be hard to remember this now, but “Friends” was actually funny when it started. But then the female fans started to clamor for certain characters to be coupled with other characters and it became an incestuous mess.

I firmly believe that’s what happened here. The female fans, and probably the female writers, and maybe some of the males, wanted Ted to end up with Robin in the end. It just felt right.

I actually kind of agree, untilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll they called her Aunt Robin for the first time. [I thought that happened in the season one series finale, evidently it was the first episode, but still my point remains]. Once they did that, they should have thrown the whole idea out the window. I know they didn’t want it to be too obvious (people would have bitched), but if it felt right, it would have felt right.

And if we’re looking at it from the sappy point of view why not make Ted and Tracy a happy couple who shares their life together. That’s how the show started, Ted running through all the wrong women because he believed in love and that he would eventually find the right one, the love of his life he was looking for.

I loved the scene when he finally met my mother under the yellow umbrella at the train station. And they talked about all their near misses, and all the luck that brought them together.

As I was watching I thought this would have worked out really well. Lily in her white whale costume, Robin walking out the door, and instead of Robin being Ted’s white whale. Ted became Robin’s. The symmetry would have been beautiful.

But they ruined the ending. It could have been beautiful, he went through all the trials and tribulations of looking for love and finally found the one perfect woman for him. Why did they have to kill her off and get him together with Robin? Girlz is dumb.

There have been many series finales (Sopranos and Seinfeld come to mind) that people hated because they weren’t true to the show.

Note: I sort of felt this way about “Breaking Bad”

But that’s bullshit. Sopranos was a mob show, we were never promised some deep look into the makeup of the American family. How I Met Your Mother is a comedy. Its only mission is to be funny. I think the finale failed on that point a little, because too many sad things happened (Barney-Robin divorce, deterioration of the gang and of course my mother’s death) and it wasn’t all that funny.

But I don’t think they degraded the entire series by making it about my mother who in the end didn’t necessarily turn out to be the real love of Ted’s life. Nor do I think the entire final season was a waste just because it focused on a wedding for a marriage that didn’t last.

My problem with the final season and especially the final episode is that they weren’t all that funny.

But as a whole, I do feel a little bit good about the way the series ended, with Ted and Robin and the blue French horn as the final image of a show I really enjoyed for a really long time.

He's Come A Long Way Baby

Exactly 5 years ago today (I started this post before realizing the date was exact), I posted a classic The Roots song, "What They Do" (SOTW, 3/4/09) and the comments section became a forum to air grievances about their new (at the time) late night talk show, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

I said "The Roots are the house band for the worst late night talk show in the history of the world."
TON said "I just watched Monday's Late Night, and must admit...it was pretty bad. Jimmy Fallon seemed almost too nervous to do it...Did you see the 'lick it for 10' bit? Worst segment I've ever seen on any show."
TallSkott said "Am I the only one who doesn't think Fallon is funny?"

I think we were all correct at the time, segments like "Dance Your Hat and Gloves Off," "Wheel of Carpet Samples" and the aforementioned "Lick It for 10" were goofy ideas that just didn't work.

To their credit, the producers, writers and Fallon himself reimagined the show and started leaning on his strengths and The Roots. The show has had incredible hits with musical-themed segments that are entertaining, funny and go viral very quickly, like the 5 installments of History of Rap with Justin Timberlake.

My favorite recurring gimmick is when they sit down with an artist and play his/her popular song with kids' instruments.
The best was "Call Me Maybe" with Carley Rae Jepsen. But there was also "Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke (in which Black Thought spits a verse way doper than the cheesy one TI laid down on the actual recording). And there was also a hip-hop Sesame Street theme with the characters in studio, and Black Thought killing it once again.

The latest of these is a rendition of "Let It Go" with Idina Menzel from "Frozen."



Another recent segment I like that typifies Fallon's strength as a mimic is the hashtags segment in which they asked for viewer submissions of frequently misheard song lyrics, which Fallon then sang.



I was particularly amused by his Mick Jagger impression, "In Yugoslavia, in Yugoslavia you'll never starve."

If they continue to churn out gems like this Fallon could very well go down as a legendary late night host.

And that's something none of us saw coming 5 years ago.

What's The Universe Saying With This One?

By now, most of you know that I get dinner at work every night. We have a rotation of 10 or 15 restaurants. I almost always get the same thing every time we order from a particular restaurant.

But last night I decided to switch it up and order the chicken under a brick.

It was pretty good, if a little small.

I know I have never ordered this meal before. I've never talked about it before. I'm pretty sure I'd never even heard about chicken being prepared this way.

A few hours later I decided to watch the new episode of Four Courses with JB Smoove.

What the Heck Happened?

One day I noticed an unusual spike in hits for the Poop.

Most of them were for the post titled "Mrs. Poop's Evening Workout." That was the post speculating about Undercover Boss coming to Retro Fitness, which did eventually happen.
As you may remember, that episode featured a horrible employee named Jackie who was fired for her behavior on the show.

I am guessing that episode recently aired for the first time in New Zealand.

Note: that original post has 25 comments (most all-time) and 3400 page views (just outside the top 10 all-time).

I Don't Remember Getting Older, When Did They?

The producers of "Girl Meets World" posted this picture, the "Boy Meets World" cast then (1996) and now, 17 years later.

First thing that jumps out is that Mr. Turner is not there. He's not dead. He's just not relevant to this spinoff and probably wasn't willing to be in the picture and go home without getting paid. Other things I noticed: Topanga looks great. Shawn and Eric look like brothers. Feeny looks very old. Amy hasn't aged a bit. What the fuck is on Alan's head? It looks like he took Turner's mullet and bleached it then slapped it on his head.

Breaking Bad: "Granite State"

So are we really supposed to believe that Walt was about to give himself up? That was clearly the implication, I think, from the phone call and the calm drink order. He realized that he had lost even his most loyal ally (they even call him Flynn in school), and it hit home that the things he had done to help his family, had actually cost him his family.

But then the Grey Matter Charlie Rose interview changed everything. The exact same thing that forced Walt to tell Hank that Gale couldn't be Heisenberg, seemingly forced him to escape the bar, flee New Hampshire, the Granite State, and head back to Albuquerque with heavy artillery in his trunk, in order to get the ricin out of his outlet cover.

And who knows what happens after that. But let me throw out a couple theories:
1) I have thought all along that Walt was going to die of cancer. Is it possible that he somehow does kill the Nazis, get his money back, give it to his family and save Jesse? And then die of cancer before the Feds can catch him?

In TV and movies we like to see the good guy win in the end, but this show has always gone against that type. The hero is an anti-hero, a bad guy, and he's gotten worse as the series has gone on.

2) Walt tries to kill the Nazis, they capture him too and put him and Jesse to work cooking meth. The show ends just like it started.

Is Carmen too young and pretty to be a high school principal?

Did Todd really have to kill Andrea? What happened to Brock? Did he just wake up and find his mother dead on the porch? Todd hates kids. First Drew Sharp, now this. And he likes it. He was proud when they were all watching Jesse talk about how he killed Drew Sharp.

Robert Forster was a great choice for the vacuum guy wasn't he? That black market chemo was awesome, though I didn't even know that was possible.

How long do you think you could survive an existence like that? No TV, internet, phone, no contact with the outside world, can't leave the property. Looks like Walt did a few months. I think I could do a year before I turned into Jack Nicholson from "The Shining."

There's no way Jesse could have had the necessary upper-body strength to pull off that near escape after weeks in captivity.

Doesn't Walt have a little Marty McFly in him? His reaction to being doubted or diminished is the same way Marty reacted when anyone called him chicken. I guess it's a good plot device in both cases.

I really cannot wait to see the final episode, 75 minutes, just in case your DVR doesn't record automatically. I can't think about anything else. I wonder what happens, and how it happens. And I wonder what I will do with my time when it's over.

Breaking Bad: "Confessions"

Finally, a real "Breaking Bad" type episode. If the first episode was a C+, and the previous one was a B+, this was definitely an A+.

Let's start at the end, with the most dramatic action yet this season. It was a little confusing and I needed a little refresher before I fully comprehended it, and even so it's a big leap of cognition for Jesse, but here's my understanding. Jesse had a joint in his cigarette pack and when it was missing he realized Saul had Huell (aka the huge black guy) picked his pocket. His mind immediately ran to the ricin which was in his cigarette pack and had been removed. If that was also done by Huell/Saul/Walt then it was done to frame Gus for poisoning Brock, which means it was actually done by Walt. Quite a revelation to make while standing on the street corner waiting to enter the Criminal Protection Program, but as best as I can figure, that's what happened.

After that Jessie barges into Walt's house with gasoline. Now the scene we've already seen, the flash-forward as it were, doesn't seem to show Walt's house being in charred ruins, so obviously something is going to happen before Jessie strikes the match. I have a hunch Walt will once again manipulate him. I don't think he will kill him with the frozen gun.

As for the other big twist in the episode, brilliant move by Walt making that DVD.

It does just enough to slow Hank down. Now if you really thought about it, there's too many holes in the story for people to seriously believe Hank was the mastermind. But, it's enough to give him pause. And the fact that Hank is and has already sat on evidence and not presented it, and that he (inadvertently) accepted drug money to pay his medical bills, would make him look even worse. This brings me back to my original suspicion that this season would be a cat-and-mouse game between Walt and Hank.

There's also this pesky storyline about Todd and Lydia that won't go away. Todd calls Walt to give him the latest. But he also speaks way too openly about the details and the real names of Walt and Jesse.

There was also a tarantula walking by at one point. What the hell could that mean? Another juvenile death?

Five episodes to go and I can't wait.

Breaking Bad: "Buried"

So now we have a little more to sink our teeth into. Skylar stands by her man and Marie stands by hers.

This presents a very interesting conflict, because I kind of think this takes killing Hank off the table. It will be harder to get away with killing Hank if Walt would have to kill Marie too, and Skyler would have to go along with it.

I don't want to spend every second of every episode, and all the seconds in between obsessing about how it's going to end, especially because I have a strong suspicion that everything leading up to the finale will make us believe one thing, and the ending will be something completely different.

But I am speculating about what will happen to Jesse. Despite being two pivotal scenes, Jesse did not have a speaking part in this week's episode. I think all this boredom, apathy, and perhaps loss of millions will lead Jesse to start cooking again with Lydia.

Otherwise that scene with Todd doesn't make sense. Why would there even be a storyline involving Lydia and Todd if it didn't eventually bring back Walt and or Jesse?

I loved her red-soled shoes though. Was it foreshaowing the bloodshed? Were they trying to depict how much money she's making? Did the gay costume designers just want to buy fancy shoes?

Lots of unanswered questions remain. Like, in what lottery can you play number 106?

I read that those coordinates are the exact coordinates of the studio where the show is filmed. And apparently the spot where he buried the money is the original cooksite from episode 1 of the series.

And if he buried 6 huge barrels in the hole, wouldn't there be 6 barrelfuls of extra dirt to disperse somewhere?

I'm pretty sure these aren't the important questions, but I really have no idea when or how Walt is going to get outed as Heisenberg, or what he is going to do with that ricin, so I'll ponder these trivialities until next Sunday.

Breaking Bad: "Blood Money"

Since this is the final season of Breaking Bad and I love it so much, and after the episodes are over I’m still thinking about them, I will try to write a brief synopsis of each. I won’t post them right away, hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday each week, but if you’re a slowpoke, or haven’t started watching at all, but plan to catch up, please skip these posts.

This episode was like a first round draft pick, you can’t just judge it based on what it is, you have to wait until to see what it becomes. If we were just looking at it and judging it based on the entertainment value during those 60 minutes, it would grade poorly. It was slow and boring and only in the last 5 minutes did we get any serious action.

BUT…we have to wait to see what happens for the rest of the season to see what kind of groundwork was laid in this episode.

For instance, the opening scene where the neighbor sees him and drops the groceries (juxtaposed with the later/earlier scene when she says hi) foreshadows that the whole world knows about him, and he’s obviously on the lam (building on what we learned last year).

Also, the inane conversation between Badger and Skinny Pete about Star Trek might pay off, if it was meant to show Jesse’s boredom with his “good” life; and to portend him “breaking bad” again.

I clearly think that is what was going on with Walt. There is no way he can get the kind of rush and feeling of power from rearranging the air fresheners (how could pine be the best seller?), that he gets from cooking meth. And that is why Lydia came to the car wash, to appeal to the same side of Walt that had to speak up when Hank thought Gale was Heisenberg.

As for the dramatic final scene, I have long thought that the final season would be a cat and mouse game between Hank and Walt. Because it now seems so obvious, I’m starting to rethink it. I think Walt may kill Hank, and go back to cooking meth, before he has to go on the run.

But then who is the ricin for?

6 million people watched this episode, which I think is pretty great considering Big Brother on CBS is only doing slightly better than that. But then I see that Rizzoli & Isles on TNT was viewed by 5.5 million, so I don’t understand anything at all.

Have an A-1 day!

The Universe's Favorite 80s Sitcom

Another crazy Universe moment occurred recently. I'm lying in bed reading a Sports Illustrated article about Bob Uecker and Mrs. Poop is watching King of Queens. The article included a picture of the cast of "Mr. Belvedere" so of course I started singing the theme song, "streaks on the china..."
Within 15 minutes this scene appeared on King of Queens:



Now I know I talk about Mr Belvedere a lot, and sing the theme song frequently, but not so often, that I wouldn't be amazed by the Universe's ability to deliver it to me within a few minutes of asking for it.

What Do You Say?

What do you call this woman who is best known for her roles as Stacey Carosi on Saved By the Bell and Carrie Heffernan on King of Queens?

Chemistry Lesson

Pardon the Interruption, PTI, is the best show on television. It's well-produced, they always pick the best topics of the day and discuss them in interesting ways. The format is great, the topics never get stale or boring. And they are not afraid to break format and talk about some ridiculous internet video, or a men's hairstyle. They talk about the same things you and your friends talk about it, in the same way.

Billy sent me this video, sort of an outtake as Mike and Tony were getting ready to do an interview with Brad Keselowski. It demonstrates the main reason PTI works, the amazing chemistry between Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser.

A Misplaced Space

I don't really need to write too much about this one. The person who writes the scroll from MLB Network pressed the space bar at the wrong time and instead of "players hitting" it displayed "player shitting." And it ran during "Bad News Bears Breaking Training."

I Have Met My Mother

Her name is Cristin Milloti, and she is my mother. Finally, on the finale of the 8th season of "How I Met Your Mother" they revealed the titular "mother."
She was carrying the yellow umbrella and wearing the cute boots that Lilly is going to borrow because they are the same size. And I am assured that this is not a pump fake, this is really her.



I really liked this episode in its entirety even before the reveal. The stuff with Ted still being in love with Robin is a bit much. Barney and Robin trying to break up that couple was quite funny (yes that was Penny from "Happy Endings"). And although the Marshall judge thing was totally unrealistic, I do understand they are trying to set up some major tension between Marshall and Lily for the 9th and final season.

I think there is plenty of material for a very strong final season. There are a lot of loose ends that could be tied up as well as enough fun stuff to do with the courtship (I'm assuming they will jam pack next season so that it ends with the wedding, or better yet the birth of the kids, or better yet until the day he is telling them the story). It should be a great final season to bring a show that started off as a 10, and fell to a six, back up to its rightful perch.

But for now the big question is, who do the kids resemble most?