New Thing #363: Netflix

Earlier this year my wife and I watched (or, as we later figured out as we saw familiar episodes for a second time, mostly re-watched) Arrested Development. We DVRed all of the episodes that were run over the summer on IFC in advance of the Netflix release of the fourth season of the show.

We figured at some point we'd get Netflix and watch that fourth season, and I hoped that it would happen before the end of the calendar year so it could be a New Thing.

That, as you might imagine, was looking pretty unlikely with December coming to a close.

And then my brother gave us our Christmas gift.

Surprise! It was a six-month subscription to Netflix!

This is something I thought about for a really long time - friends had been talking up Netflix to me for a really long time.

I was never really interested in it when it was the DVD-through-the-mail business (it was, right? I'm not imagining that?), but once it started the streaming stuff I was intrigued.

I've written about this numerous times - I'm not a huge movie guy. If I'm spending a few hours on something, it's going to be sports. But I do watch a lot of TV, and I'm interested in good TV when I hear about a show that's worth watching.

So I'm not sure what kind of use I'll make of Netflix.

We're starting with Arrested Development, that's a sure thing. Saturday night we did our first Netflix watch, dialing up the first episode of the fourth season. (It took me a minute to figure out Netflix - I clicked on Arrested Development and the pilot started playing, so I had to figure out how to navigate the site.)

As we were driving back from New York, though, I was thinking of other ways I could use Netflix. These next six months (and beyond, because let's be honest - I have a feeling this will lead to us ordering a subscription - I think it's going to be great) could be a great opportunity for me to watch all of these movies that I just haven't watched in my life. I immediately searched for Mel Brooks stuff - but that's not on there.

I'll have to make a list of movies and shows I should catch up on or know about and then search to see if they're on there. I'll start with shows friends have raved about for a long time - Bob's Burgers is one that comes to mind. Then I'll work my way up to some movies.

The timing of this gift is perfect. Sure, we're watching a lot of Modern Family on DVR these days, but the NFL season is winding down and I don't generally watch a lot of winter sports. It's a good time for me to explore Netflix.

I'm excited about it…and if you know me you won't be surprised to learn that I'm also a little overwhelmed.

If you have suggestions for what I should watch, let me know.

New Thing #356: Seeing Black and White In Color

I grew up watching a lot of I Love Lucy. I feel like it was on Fox 5 on weekday mornings, and of course it was on Nick at Nite.

But I don't know if my brother and sister and I would have watched it if it wasn't my mom's favorite show.

She loved I Love Lucy - she's seen all of the episodes hundreds of times…which means we've seen them tens of times.

But until Friday night, I'd only seen them in black and white.

I'd almost forgotten CBS was airing colorized versions of a couple of episodes. My mom had told me it was going to be on, and I thought I'd check it out.

But I forgot - it was the night that began my winter break, and my wife and I watched an episode of Modern Family (we're about halfway through the first season, and I think it's excellent, in case you were wondering), and then I was flipping through the channels and caught the last half-hour or so.

We missed the Christmas special, but we saw most of 'Lucy's Italian Movie' - which you might know as the "grape-stomping" episode.

I'll say this about the show - it holds up well. There were a few laugh-out-loud moments - both in scripted jokes as well as Lucille Ball's slapstick.

But I don't know if I appreciated seeing it in color. Sure, there was Ball's famed red hair, and it was interesting to see the title screen in pink, which I suppose is how it was meant to be seen, but I have a weird thing about black and white.

It doesn't matter that I knew Lucille Ball had red hair. It doesn't matter that I knew the sets of the shows back then and the people themselves were made up of multiple colors - to me those shows are always in black and white. When I imagine them, I imagine them in my mind's eye in black and white.

It's mostly sporting events from the 1950's or earlier where this happens - I know what Yankee Stadium looks like in living color, but if it's from video before the '60s, I can only see it in black and white. I know what colors the uniforms were and the skin color is, and the bats and the grass and the walls...but I just can't place the proper colors to black and white film.

I wonder if that happens to everyone or if it's just me.

And that's just my generation. I wonder about people who lived through black and white as the only option and how they reconcile their colors.

I don't know if it's a big deal or not…and I don't know if anyone else thinks about this. But that's what I think about when I hear or see something about colorized black and white television shows.

And whenever they're on I'll try to check them out to satisfy my curiosity.

But even after I see them in color, they'll always live on in my mind as black and white images.

New Thing #319: FOX Sports Live

Ever since it debuted in August I was interested in checking out the new FOX Sports channel, FOX Sports One, and its flagship show, FOX Sports Live. (I always write the network FOX with all capitals, and I'm sure I could get away with doing it as upper-and-lowercase. Also, I think it's a flagship show. Not sure if that's the proper term. I'm just throwing that out there now before you all bombard me with mail critiquing me on those points.)

Anyway, the channel itself is never in my rotation when I'm switching around, and the show is on too late for me to stay up and watch.

So this week I made an effort to check it out - I DVR'ed a week's worth of shows to see what FOX Sports Live was all about.

I'll be honest - the big draw for me with this show is the duo of Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole, who anchor the highlight desk (again, I'm going with my best guess on what to use for a title here). Onrait and O'Toole are Canadians who have reportedly been a huge success north of the border and were brought to this show to generate interest.

I thought they were the show's anchors, but I was surprised to see that it started on Monday with Charissa Thompson (a FOX personality who I feel like has been with the network in some form or another for a while) reading the intro and then the camera comes to Thompson's panel, consisting of Donovan McNabb, Andy Roddick, Gary Payton, and Kirk Morrison.

(That's a huge turnoff for me - I've found I enjoy sports a lot more without all of the talking head panels - I never watch NFL pre-game shows on Sundays anymore and I'm much happier. But I guess there are people out there who love them, since that's all they put on these days. So maybe I'm in the minority.)

I guess as a male somewhere near the demographic FOX is shooting for (OK. I'm too old for their demographic these days probably), I should be a fan of them using the attractive woman to start the show…but I'm really watching to see Onrait and O'Toole.

Maybe it's a carryover from my early SportsCenter days (when I was smack dab in the demographic ESPN was shooting for with the Dan Patrick-Keith Olbermann SporsCenter), but I wanted to see the personalities I had heard so much about to see if they measured up to what I remembered enjoying so much.

And I really enjoyed Onrait and O'Toole.

I liked the fun they had - on Monday they played 'NFL Quarterback or Character on FOX's Almost Human' in a segment called 'Case of the Mondays'. But I thought a little bit of the fun crossed a line.

When they reported about Steven Stamkos breaking his leg in a game against the Bruins on Monday, they gave a glowing lead-in about Stamkos' great start to the season, and the whole time the words "Unfortunate Foreshadowing" flashed on the screen.  I'm not sure that was entirely appropriate.

It's been a while since I watched a SportsCenter-type show in its entirety, so I'm not sure what the going rate is for an A-Block (that's the first segment of the show before you see a commercial), but I liked how the first segment of each show was almost 20 minutes. That seemed long. (Unnecessarily long on Wednesday, where the show came on aftter Ultimate Fighting and most of the first section was devoted to that sport.)

What I liked the best was the way they end the show - The 'Best Person In Sports', a not-so-veiled take on Keith Olbermann's 'Worst Person…' ending. It's a really positive ending, always highlighting something good in sports. Onrait and O'Toole themselves deserve a 'Best Person' nod - they're growing out mustaches on the air to raise 'Movember' awareness.

Tuesday and Wednesday they analyzed each other's mustache progress and took good-natured shots at one another in the process. Wednesday they spent 15-20 seconds of a story just admiring Andy Reid's mustache. (Or 'Lip Sweater', as they called it.)

A positive social statement, having fun all the while? That's the kind of sports I like.

I don't like all things FOX, but I like Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole.

I think I'm a fan of FOX Sports Live.

New Thing #313: The Schedule Makers

I was sitting at my daughter's dance class Saturday morning, trying to entertain my 2-and-a-half-year old, hoping to come across a New Thing. She started to tie and untie my shoes, leaving me with the perfect 15-minute window to check Twitter on my phone.

Lo and behold, Buster Olney tweeted out a link to a 30-For-30 Short called The Schedule Makers.

I had today's New Thing.

I haven't watched very many of the ESPN '30 For 30' series…but obviously, they've been critically acclaimed, and the ones I've seen have been good. (The one that stands out the most is the one about Reggie Miller and the Knicks, but I think I've seen a couple of others.)

This one is about Henry and Holly Stephenson, the couple from Martha's Vineyard who created the Major League Baseball schedule from 1982-2004.

A couple of things about this story enticed me:

• It was a short - it runs 12 minutes, 25 seconds, so I was able to watch it sitting there on the floor of Dancer's Workshop, while my daughter untied my shoes. (I said before 'tie and untie', but that's wrong - she didn't tie my shoes at all.) (Also parenthetically, this was also a New Thing - rarely do I open up videos if I'm not on wireless, but this thing came across the network pretty well - no stops and starts.)
• Because of the local aspect of the Stephensons, I had heard about them before. It always boggled my mind that the entire Major League Baseball schedule was created from a home on Martha's Vineyard, at least as far as the annual brief mentions in the baseball column in the Boston Globe went. I think, if I remember correctly, after they stopped making the schedules, there was some kind of profile in the Globe, but that was at least 8 years ago. I'm not even sure if I read it or I just knew it happened. Or maybe I'm completely wrong.
• It's not exactly in my wheelhouse as far as how my brain works, but I always was intrigued by the idea that the schedule had to be created. Given a week or something like that where I could singularly focus on it, I would love the challenge of scheduling 162 games for 30 teams.

The short doesn't get into the process a ton, but I liked hearing about the quirks that need to be considered when making the schedule: Baltimore likes to open at home, Seattle likes to be on the road for Seafarers' Week, other teams like to be home for certain events, Boston has to be home for Patriots' Day, and the Stephensons kind of laughed at all of the events scheduled in New York that needed to be taken into consideration.

I liked this picture they showed of the schedule sketch:

The teams are listed across the top, and the dates are down the side, and the numbers correspond to the opponent. That seems like something I could do.

One thing I know I would do differently - Holly Stephenson uses those pencils that are kind of mechanical but aren't really - they're yellow, they have the adjustable lead that comes out of the tip - but I've never loved those pencils. I've tried them - whenever I used them they had terrible erasers, and they broke easily. She also uses them when she does her New York Times crosswords, which they showed - she's a big puzzler. I always use a pen. I couldn't imagine using one of those pencils on the magazine paper.

I don't know that I would care enough to watch a documentary - no matter how short - on how schedules were made for other sports.

But there's something about the Major League Baseball schedule and Henry and Holly's long involvement in its creation that really piques my interest.

Clearly, based on this short, I'm not alone.

And, if anyone cares, I'd give it more than 12:25 if a longer documentary was ever made.

New Thing #271: Outsmarting The DVR

Remember all my excitement about watching Modern Family from the beginning thanks to the modern wonders of syndicated repeats, DVRs, and setting said DVRs from mobile devices? Well, imagine my disappointment when I popped onto the DVR only to find that there were just 8 episodes of Modern Family sitting there, none of which was titled "Pilot", which I knew had been sitting there just days before.

Disappointment turned to anger and then joy - all within seconds - as I realized this was an opportunity to try something I had never done before:

I undeleted a show.

Actually, I undeleted a lot of shows.

Turns out, setting a series to record from the phone app must use the default recording settings.

Among those settings: the fact that the DVR will only keep up to 5 shows at a time.

We realized the problem pretty immediately. Also pretty immediately, the instinctual reflexes that I hope will someday kick in if I ever need to help save another person's life kicked in to rescue a TV show.

I opened the trash and there sat, among the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother and a couple of repeated episodes of Louie, about 10 episodes of Modern Family...including the pilot episode, around which my whole plan revolves. (Ed. Note: "Plan" = watching every episode of a hit television show four years late.)

One last note - one time someone who shall remain nameless was babysitting our daughters and turned off the recorder in the middle of a Parks and Recreation or some such show, by accident, and then, attempting to fix said deletion, proceeded to accidentally delete a bunch of the same shows already stored in the DVR. By the time we thought about looking into the trash to try to recover episodes it was too late.

I owe that unnamed person a debt of gratitude. If it wasn't for that experience, I would never have been able to react to this situation with such speed and grace.

New Thing #269: Sharing History With My Daughters

I think I've told you before that I just love American history. My daughters have picked up on some of that here and there - like showing an interest in some of the presidents and related trivia - but for the most part they're still a little too young.

For example, my favorite part of American history - the American Revolution - is still a little too far above their heads...and maybe too violent.

But I can't wait for them to be old enough to be really interested, because we live in a place that is so connected to all of that history and we can have some fun little day trips together.

On Saturday, I got a taste of what that might be like.

There's this show called Liberty's Kids which has been around for a decade at least (that's how long I've known about it, anyway) but I've never watched consistently.

I don't even know if they still make new episodes, or if they just show the same ones over and over.

Apparently, as I discovered on Saturday, it's on the local CBS station on Saturdays at noon. (And again at 12:30pm.)

Because it was a particularly busy week, and I couldn't sleep in on Saturday on account of the ballet class, I penciled in a nap around noon on Saturday, once my youngest daughter was down for her nap.

There was no good college football on TV to which I could fall asleep, and I happened to switch by Liberty's Kids. The older two girls seemed interested, and wanted me to leave it on. So I did.

They may have been the most exciting episodes ever - featuring April 18, 1775, with the titular kids helping Paul Revere and Billy Dawes alert the countryside that "The Regulars are coming out!", and April 19, 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Those may be my two favorite days in American history. (Followed closely by October 25 and 27, 1986, of course, when the Mets won Games 6 and 7 of the World Series.)

Anyway, I drifted in and out of sleep, but it didn't seem like the war scenes were terribly inappropriate for a 5-and-7-year old. There was a death shown, but it wasn't graphic or anything.

I definitely sensed engagement from my daughters...and they certainly made connections knowing they had been to both Concord and Lexington.

It makes me excited for the possibilities of a New Thing in 2015 or 2016 or so - when we can walk the Freedom Trail in Boston as a family.

New Thing #267: Modern Family

This week, USA started airing syndicated episodes of Modern Family. My wife and I have never seen an episode of the show, but we've certainly heard the rave reviews. (And it has not gone unnoticed that it won another 'Outstanding Comedy' Emmy this past Sunday night.)

We don't have a ton of time for new shows, but with The Office and 30 Rock ending last year, we kind of have a little more television time.

So the DVR is set (my wife can do that from her phone - how cool is that! - that's what you see in the picture above), and, as is my preference with this type of thing, we're starting from the beginning.

It seems like syndication has changed a bit - the way USA is airing Modern Family is different from what I'm used to. They're airing 2 hours of shows most nights of the week (not all, which is also weird to me - though I saw Monday night it wasn't on because of wrestling, which is a ratings machine, so I get it) - not like the old days where Seinfeld was on 5 days a week at 7pm or whatever.

But at least they're airing the episodes in order, which is the important part.

My wife and I have done this once before - with The Sopranos. Leading up to the show's final season we TiVo'ed all of the episodes HBO was airing, and ended up able to watch them all in order, and I'm pretty sure we watched most of that last season in real time.

This should be easier, because Modern Family is only a half-hour, and The Sopranos was an hour long...although when we were watching The Sopranos we didn't have three kids. (I'm not sure we had even one kid..although I seem to remember we had a baby when the show ended.) But that certainly affects our TV-watching this time around.

(I guess I should also mention we've kind done this twice - over the summer we DVR'ed the entire catalog of Arrested Development, which IFC was airing in anticipation of Netflix's release of the new season of that show. Two problems there, though: 1) We don't have Netflix, so there may be no closure to that binge-watching experiment, and 2) it turns out, whereas I thought I hadn't watched much Arrested Development, I'm realizing as we watch the shows that I have seen many of the episodes. That's why I haven't written about it yet - it's not really a New Thing.)

I read, too, that AMC will be showing all of the episodes of Breaking Bad ('Outstanding Drama', for what that's worth) leading up to  that show's series finale. We just can't do that - again, it's an hour versus a half-hour, and it's just too heavy, I think, for the kind of show we're looking for right now.

Modern Family should be perfect - a good comedy which we can watch at our leisure without blowing up all of our free time.

While we're on the subject of TV shows, How I Met Your Mother began its final season this week. My wife and I have had some hits (New Girl) and some misses (Ben and Kate) with TV shows we've watched from the start. How I Met Your Mother has had some downs over its run, but for the most part it's been a solid hit. We're looking forward to a strong final season.

And we're already keeping an ear to the ground for possible shows to fill How I Met Your Mother's spot on our DVR a year from now.

New Thing #265: A Stress-Free Fall Sunday

There's nothing like sitting around on a rainy Sunday doing nothing but watching football. Those Sundays are few and far between for me.

Either it's beautiful out and I feel guilty for staying in and watching the games, or the Jets aren't on TV and I have to figure out a way to get the free hours to leave the house to go somewhere to watch the game.

But that's no longer a problem.

I've already told you about 'Football On My Phone.'

I'm not going to rehash that - nor will I write much more about football after today (probably). But I do need to let you know today will be the first day I will be watching the Jets on my phone.

For the season opener they were on the local Fox station while the Patriots were on CBS. The next week they were the nationally televised Thursday night game.

Today there are just two games on local TV - the Patriots at 1 and the 49ers at 4.

So I'll be watching both of those games on TV, with the Jets on the phone late in the day.

And there's rain in the forecast, so I'll be able to sit and read the Sunday newspapers and then veg out without worrying that I should be taking the girls for a walk or to play outside or anything.

They can play inside and I can have a stress-free Sunday. (Provided I can get the newspapers inside the house before they get soaked through.)

I just won't be able to flip between the 4pm games on my phone, which is too bad. There are quite a few this week. But maybe I'll get my fill switching between the 1pm games.

I might even watch a baseball  game on my computer. David Wright is back in the Mets' lineup, and I haven't watched the Mets in a long time. And I just love David Wright. (He's been out 7 weeks. I might not have watched a full Mets game in something like 5 weeks.)

So that's where I'll be this Sunday if you need me.

Try not to need me.

Especially if you have news that might stress me out.

And if you happen to pass my house before I make it out to grab the newspapers, you can help make my Sunday stress-free by bringing those papers closer to the door and sheltered from the rain.

Thank you.

New Thing #254: Glickman

I had a free weekend of HBO this past weekend. I can't overdo it when one of these free weekends comes along.

I just don't have the time to binge watch a show like The Sopranos anymore. (Two Sopranos references in two days! It can almost challenge football's dominance this week!)

But if there's a show or a movie that catches my eye, I can either watch one or DVR it and watch it a little bit later - I have the time for that.

Thankfully, this documentary caught my eye - because I had seen an ad for it and I was psyched to watch it.

It's called Glickman - a documentary about Marty Glickman, who I remember primarily as the Jets broadcaster when I was little.

But his life was much, much more than that.

The first words you hear in the documentary are in Glickman's voice - "I don't remember ever walking as a young person. I always ran. It was just in my nature to run." I feel like I've heard this quote from him before...or maybe I read it. (Or maybe it was in the commercial for the documentary that I saw.) Regardless, it's a powerful quote.

Marty Glickman, above all else, was an athlete. Primarily, he was a runner. An Olympic-quality runner. Unfortunately, he was a Jewish American Olympic-quality runner in the 1930s. And the 1936 Olympics, when Glickman was 18 years old, were held in Hitler's Germany. And Glickman's American coaches - for what were later found to be Nazi sympathizing reasons - kept him from competing in those Olympic games. (It's somewhat chilling to see the video footage of the 1936 Olympics and all of the goodwill shown towards Hitler.)

I didn't know anything about Glickman when I was younger other than his voice. (When I placed a face to the voice it was close to the image you see above, which was featured in the documentary - that's how I remember Marty Glickman.) I think the first thing I learned about him later on in life was that he was really the first ex-athlete to become a broadcaster. He was really a pioneer in the field...a field about which I care a lot. Probably too much.

Glickman was an early sports broadcasting giant - calling the Giants, Knicks, Rangers, horse racing and any other number of sports and teams in addition to the Jets.

His voice means a lot to me - and it's featured prominently in this documentary. It's filled with passion and anger and sadness when he talks about how he was wronged in 1936 and when he talks about his biggest regret in life the following year. It almost has a 'gotcha' tone to it when he talks about how he realized no one was broadcasting basketball and took advantage of that to become the voice of the game. (And then prominent Glickman fans and proteges like Bob Costas, Marv Albert, David Stern, Larry King, and Mike Breen talk about the basketball broadcasting terms Glickman invented at that time.) He's frank when he talks about how he describes the games. It all reminds me of being in the car listening to Glickman's voice talking about the Jets. (And I didn't remember until the end of the documentary that his time with the Jets that I remember so clearly was actually post-retirement, when he came back to the Jets for a few years to finish his career.)

There's a bonus great story embedded in the documentary about Lou Zamperini, another one about how as broadcaster of the Giants Glickman beat some of the players in a footrace.

It's not the best-made documentary I've ever seen. (I'm getting old - sometimes just the very fact that graphics are too small and I can't read them is reason enough for me to get frustrated with a program. Also, I now call things "programs.") But it's a good sports documentary.

And, if you grew up like me, parts of its greatness lie in the sentimental reasons.

New Thing #194: Drunk History

I'm not sure where I first heard about Drunk History.

I think it's been advertised recently on the podcasts I listen to.

I know I read about the show in last Sunday's New York Times.

It was an interview with a creator of the show, Derek Waters, and he talked about how the idea came from a conversation he had with Jake Johnson, where after a few drinks Johnson was messing up a story he was trying to tell about Otis Redding.

Johnson is Nick on New Girl, and I think I would pay to watch him tell a story when he was drunk. I think he is very funny.

So that translated to me thinking that this show had to be funny.

Apparently Drunk History was featured on the website Funny or Die (which I have not spent nearly enough time checking out) years ago. Now it's a show on Comedy Central, Tuesday nights at 10pm.

The premise is simple - people tell historical stories while drunk. And while sometimes the actions of the drunk storyteller are funny (the first storyteller on the show last week vomited mid-story), most of the comedy lies in the fact that the stories being told feature big-time actors acting them out.

The first episode featured Bob Odenkirk as Richard Nixon, Jack Black as Elvis Presley, Adam Scott as John Wilkes Booth, and David Grohl (I know, I want to call him Dave too, but he was credited as David), Stephen Merchant, Fred Willard, and Jack McBrayer in lesser roles.

The show employs a researcher, and I think part of its appeal is that the stories are true....although I think I'd do some fact-checking of my own before I took a story I saw on the show to the bank.

It's an entertaining half-hour. Next week's episode goes opposite the All Star Game, so I think I'll be catching that one on the DVR, but it's a good option if you're looking for something to watch on Tuesday nights during the summer. And then I guess there are some old web episodes worth searching for too.

Here - if you have 5-and-a-half minutes, check out the first one produced for Funny or Die - it features Michael Cera as Alexander Hamilton and Jake Johnson (!) as Aaron Burr.

New Thing #161: The Tonys Opening Number

I won't lie - it's been kind of a crazy week. I haven't had a chance to listen to any new music.

I figured on Sunday I'd listen to one of the songs nominated for a Tony Award and call it a day.

As it turns out, I don't think they nominate individual songs - just the musicals themselves, as far as I can tell.

Still, I figured if I watched the Tony Awards long enough Sunday night I'd find something new worth writing about.

I didn't have to wait long.

Neil Patrick Harris, the host of the Tonys, opened with a musical number that paid tribute to a number of Broadway shows as well as the fact that the event was back (I think?) in Radio City Music Hall...sorry for not knowing for sure. This is not my area of expertise. (New Thing!)

I know this, though - the musical number was awesome.

If you didn't know, Harris is talented. He's hosted this show before, and I think I saw him do it. Or maybe that was the Emmys. But he did a similar song-and-dance routine there too. (He did say during the Tonys that it was his 4th time hosting this show.) He can sing, he can dance, you probably know he has great comic timing...he's talented.

This act featured some circus acts - that's him jumping through a hoop in the picture above - and some magic, a la Pippin, and spoofs/tributes of a number of other shows, including singing from the top of a cheerleader pyramid, a la Bring It On.

I'm not sure if this is the type of thing that gets put on YouTube or not, but it's worth a search to see it in its entirety...whether or not you're a fan of Broadway shows.

The song itself wasn't bad. Probably called something like It's Bigger, if you need help with your search.

As a quick bit of background info, I'm not the biggest Broadway fan in the world, but I do enjoy a good show. And what Neil Patrick Harris does - man, am I a fan of that. I'd love to be a singing, dancing, emceeing act. Even acting - I'd like to give that a whirl. For now, though, I'll just have to continue to live it vicariously.

UPDATE: Here's the video from YouTube:

New Thing #160: American Restoration

There's a show on the History channel (I think it's just called 'History' these days, and not The History Channel anymore) called American Restoration. A little more than a week ago, the Billy Joel Twitter feed tweeted out that Joel would be on the show.

So I set the DVR.

I figured at the very least, New Thing.

Turns out, I kind of enjoyed the show.

The deal is a guy named Rick - at "Rick's Restorations" in Las Vegas - can take these antique items people bring in to him and restore them to working condition.

There were two items to restore in this particular episode, along with a third sub-plot. I won't bury the lead - Billy Joel, I guess, knows of the show and he bought a 1967 BSA - a type of motorcycle.  It's similar to the first motorcycle he ever bought, but he bought this one as a 'basket case', which according to him is the literal meaning of that term - he bought it as a bunch of parts in a basket.

The show begins with this huge package that Joel sent to Rick, and he didn't open it until Joel was at the shop. Like with the actual show, I'll get back to the Billy Joel part at the end - now I'll tell you about what else happened.

A customer bought a walk-behind tractor from Rick, who collects and sells these antiques from his shop. The customer wanted it fully restored - with its original paint job and restored to working condition, along with a seat for the driver and a bench in back for him to have his grandchildren ride with him. It ended up coming out awesome, for $12,000.

Then, the other three guys who spend time working with Rick were sent on a 'pick' - they go to this lot where some guy keeps all these different antiques. The worker - including Rick's brother, son, and some other guy whose relation I didn't pick up on - who brings back the most profitable item gets to go to New York for the 'reveal' with Billy Joel and meet Joel.

As for the motorcycle? It turns out great - Joel is happy with it. You may know that in Oyster Bay Billy Joel has a motorcycle shop - but he doesn't do restorations. He takes new bikes and tries to make them look old. He says he likes the new technology, but the old design. Essentially he's the opposite of what Rick does. They did the reveal at Joel's motorcycle shop.

The show is pretty good - it's not like I'll seek it out every time it's on, but if I caught it again I might watch it. It's a little painful to watch the scripted unscriptedness of it - the people on the show are all characters of a sort, but they're not actors. And they try to act, which makes it feel stilted.

Billy Joel was perfect for the show, though - he's got a great sense of humor. He was kind of a perfect balance for the other over-acting around him. He walked and talked with Rick through the lot, recognizing different vintage items and talking about them, and then stopping to play an old spinet Steinway piano. He was the highlight of the show.

But I might watch it again just to see how people go about fixing these things - I have no clue about restoring engines or building benches - I have neither the know-how nor the ability nor the tools. So I can learn a lot by watching a show like this.

Whether or not it features my favorite singer of all time.

New Thing #139: Watching The End of 'The Office'

Thursday night was the series finale of The Office. My wife and I watched it on DVR delay Friday night.

It was pretty good - like much of the recent history of the show it wasn't the best TV I ever watched, but it also wasn't terrible.

Still, I found it very touching.

And I think that's due to a number of factors.

First of all, and I don't think I'm alone in this experience - The Office, especially in its finale but, as was made clear in the finale had been happening for nine years, captured what a workplace is like.

And that spot towards the end where Jim calls it (I don't remember exactly, so I'll paraphrase), "The most awful, amazing, terrible, terrific" place - I can totally relate to that. Not in my current job - I'm lucky in that way - but in my time in the TV business.

My first professional work experience was not great. But it was so great. It was a terrible place to work because it was run by terrible people...but it was an awesome place to work because it was filled with awesome people. I only maintain tangential relationships with those folks, but we all knew we were in a tough situation together work-wise, and we made the most of it socially. Not unlike the characters in The Office. (I also met my wife at that job. Not unlike the characters in The Office.)

The other thing that struck me as the show ended - and I could be way off base here because I'm only remembering something in the moment - The Office could very well be the longest-tenured show I've watched from start to finish.

(I say longest-tenured because as my wife pointed out when I mentioned this to her we watched Ben and Kate from beginning to end, but that's clearly different. Also - bonus! - Dakota Johnson, aka Kate, appeared as 'Dakota' in The Office finale.)

So let's break this down a bit. Although I've seen every Seinfeld episode, I only began watching that in season 2 or so. I remember my parents watching it before I did, and I only caught up through syndication. The Simpsons was the other show I was on early and watched straight through...for about 15 years. But that show has just kept going for another 10, and I haven't watched in about a decade. I loved Scrubs, but that petered out at the end and the network switch threw me. Cheers and the big series finales of my childhood started when I was too young, and Friends I only watched sporadically...and I think it ended while I was preparing for my wedding and I don't know if I ever watched the tape of the finale. (Now that I'm doing this mental checklist I'm realizing next year's How I Met Your Mother finale will fall into the same category as The Office.)

The funny thing is I didn't like The Office all that much at first. I found it uncomfortable (like many others, I think). I remember thinking, "Why is it being shown like a documentary?" Remember how different that was back then? Eventually I began to really appreciate how funny it was.

I assumed I missed some shows early on...but I must have seen all of the episodes in repeats that first season, because watching that retrospective before the finale I remembered everything.  (I have this weird thing about TV shows, by the way. Some of the stuff they show from 7 or 8 seasons prior seems to me like there's no way it could have been that long ago. Like the diversity episode. That was season 1? Seems more recent than that to me. Maybe because my mind works in years and not 22-episode chunks - I have a hard time following TV calendars, I think.)

But I kind of love that the documentary piece was addressed so strongly in the final season. I love that they didn't mess with Jim  and Pam too much - that made me very uncomfortable during this season. And though it had its weak moments, I looked forward to watching the show more often than not.

Series finales are always touching in some way or another. This one felt a little more so than others.

New Thing #130: Maron

Warning: Adult Content. I feel like I need to preface this one with that warning because I know what I'm about to write about won't be for everyone.

And usually I go out of my way to avoid anything that isn't family-friendly.

(I always think about my kids approaching an age where they will find this and read it, and I don't want there to be anything embarrassing. Same with work - I don't want to offend anyone. I do work with children, after all...and I'm aware someone will stumble across this site eventually.)

But the host of one of my favorite podcasts now has his own TV show and it would be wrong of me to not write about it.

It's called Maron, and it airs Fridays at 10pm on IFC.

Marc Maron is a comedian. He's been around for a while, and I remember him from the late 1980s (or maybe early 1990s) when we used to watch Stand Up Stand Up or shows like that on The Comedy Channel.

(I came to this realization last year when Maron appeared on Louie C.K.'s show Louie. In that show there were clips from 20 or so years ago of Maron and Sarah Silverman doing stand up. I recognized Silverman easily, and then had a huge flash of recognition of Marc Maron as a young man. I used to see him doing stand up all the time on The Comedy Channel. I had zero memory of C.K., for whatever that's worth.)

Anyway, if you've ever listened to his podcast you know what happened in the past 20+ years. He fell into drugs, got sober, married, divorced, married, divorced, did some radio work, hit bottom, then found new fame with a podcast where he talks with other comedy folks (and, lately, musicians) about their lives. It's called WTF, and it's probably my favorite of the podcasts to which I subscribe.

The podcast has been so successful it's led to other opportunities, hence, Maron on IFC.

For months I worried about what I would do when May 3rd rolled around. That was the show's premiere, and I really wanted to see it, and I didn't think we had IFC in our cable package.

On May 2nd I finally got around to checking out the channel lineup to see where IFC fell, and lo and behold, channel 234 - IFC! So that problem was easily solved.

Like Louie, this is a 'me' show...not an 'us' show. It's not one of those where I feel compelled to wait for my wife to watch it with me. It's not her cup of tea...though last week's pilot episode was surprisingly clean.

Some of the ads I saw for the show made me laugh out loud. I don't think that exactly happened with the first show, but that's not to say I didn't think it was funny - I liked it. I just wasn't rolling on the floor or anything.

If there's anything I've learned from a lifetime of watching TV it's that it's very hard to draw conclusions from one episode of television.

I think Maron has an initial run of 10 episodes here. That seems like a pretty good sample size from which to draw a conclusion. I'll be watching all 10.

But I'll also say this - I'm biased because I love the podcast so much. It would have to be a terrible show for me to not watch all 10...or any future seasons.

And that's the other thing about WTF - Marc Maron is so honest and open that you just want to root for him to do well. So I doubt I'm alone among fans of the podcast who, no matter how good the TV show is, are just rooting for Marc Maron to have success.

New Thing #79: New AT&T Commercials

There's a new round of AT&T commercials out featuring the children-in-a-classroom focus group and the guy who reminds me of my friend Kevin. I was alerted to the fact that there were new commercials during some of the basketball conference championship games on Sunday by none other than Kevin himself.

"There is a new AT&T ad with 'me' and it's great," Kevin texted me. "He starts high-fiving the kids. It's hilarious."

The best part of all of this is that Kevin refers to the guy in the commercials as 'me', because I was reminded of Kevin and his interactions with children the very first time I saw these AT&T commercials.

It's not an insult. All of my friends who don't have children have been fantastic around my daughters.

Kevin's approach, though, is unique. He talks to the girls in a frank manner. And when I saw the first AT&T commercial with these focus groups, it immediately made me think of those interactions.

In an interesting twist, not long after Kevin told me about the new commercial, The AV Club, which I wrote about as New Thing #78, published this article about whether or not these AT&T commercials are effective. (I tend to disagree with the site. I think they get across what they're selling fine.)

It seems with the NCAA Tournament on the horizon there's a new batch of these commercials. I've already seen two - neither of which involves any high-fiving. So there must be more to see.

Like the Super Bowl, the Tournament serves up some pretty good commercials. I'm sure there will be some good new ones this weekend. They'll have some work to do to make me laugh like the AT&T commercials. Especially since I know Kevin's enjoying them so much too.

New Thing #78: The A.V. Club

My friend Justin, who you know from Music Mondays, isn't just a one-trick pony. In addition to knowing a lot of different music, he also watches a lot of different television. (He's a real renaissance man.)

Just kidding. He is also extremely smart and has a wide variety of interests.

And we share many of those interests.

That's how I knew, when he mentioned The A.V. Club to me, that I'd probably enjoy it.

I suppose this isn't 100% new in 2013 - I think Justin told me about the website back in November.

But it's only been in the past month or so that I've been regularly checking in on the site, seeing what they have to say about my favorite shows.

There's a wide array of content on the site - I know I've only just scratched the surface of what they have to offer. But what I use it for generally is to read their recaps of the shows I like.

I like to check in and see if what I thought about an episode of The Office, or Parks and Recreation, or The Americans is the same as the general consensus.

Or, as Justin puts it, "AV Club recaps are great because they tell you what to think."

I've begun following The A.V. Club on Twitter recently too, and that's where I've found some interesting articles. They play on nostalgia every so often, and if you, like me, enjoyed watching DuckTales and the 'Disney Afternoon' shows growing up, take some time to read this article about how TV was changing at exactly the time DuckTales became a success. I loved it.

I don't really need someone to tell me what to think. What I do occasionally need is a nudge in the direction of something I might enjoy. So that's the good part about visiting this site more than once a week - while searching through to see what they wrote about a TV show, I might come across something else that I never would have otherwise read about.

My wife and I often fall behind on our favorite shows. It used to be a feeling of satisfaction for me when we caught up on the DVR.

Now, that's just step one for me. I don't get closure on an episode until I read the A.V. Club wrap-up.

New Thing #69: First Ladies - Influence & Image

My oldest daughter has been really interested in the presidents lately. Either she surprises us with a fact that she knows...or she asks us a question that I find myself surprised that I know the answer to.

I've kind of unexpectedly become a mini-expert on the presidents.

I'm far from a scholar...but I'm finding that I know quite a bit.

I credit 9 years of teaching fifth grade, where my students each year have written research papers on a variety of our country's presidents.

I also know a bit about their wives - and I hope to learn more, thanks to a new series on C-SPAN.

I know, C-SPAN. It sounds boring. But it's kind of interesting.

A couple of weeks ago they premiered a show called "First Ladies: Influence & Image."

When they kicked off the series, they did two separate panel discussions over a couple of hours about the roles a First Lady plays. It was surprising because we were expecting a produced, narrated story about a First Lady. But another surprising aspect of it was that I couldn't stop watching - it was very interesting.

I figured with the actual individual profiles, which began the next week with Martha Washington, there would be video and voice-over. We had seen an article in 'Parade Magazine' a few weeks ago that previewed the series, and we just assumed it would be a regular TV show. Instead, again, it was a roundtable discussion with some pre-recorded portions.

(Truth be told, I have yet to see the Martha Washington episode: The first episode was pre-empted by the budget news in Washington, getting bumped to midnight, so my DVR missed it. So now I'm stuck in the position of waiting for C-SPAN to air a First Ladies marathon so I can catch the repeat of Martha Washington. A lower point in my life I can not recall.)

My data is based on the Abigail Adams episode. She's in the upper echelon of First Ladies, so I assume all the shows will follow the format of her show.

C-SPAN tries to make the show interactive. It's live, apparently, which I didn't realize, and they invite you to tweet them or message them on Facebook, or call in with questions. I might take advantage of that and see if I can get on the air somehow. (Guess what kind of people call into C-SPAN on a Monday night? Yup...it was about 50-50 in the Abigail Adams episode that the caller was going to be a nut. That added an interesting tension to the proceedings. Although I will say, the woman who hosted the show handled the, um, unprofessional calls smoothly.)

Two episodes are done - they're going to go in order over two seasons until all the First Ladies are covered.

I find the discussions about the First Ladies very interesting - I don't know if it would be everyone's cup of tea. But if you're going to start watching, I'd say now would be a good time. It looks like they're giving short shrift to Martha Jefferson, who I don't think lived to be a First Lady, and jumping to Dolley Madison (who I think played hostess during Jefferson's presidency as well as Madison's). I'd recommend starting with her - she was an interesting woman.

New Thing #36: The Americans

My track record on TV show "New Things" is not good. Here's an update on my former favorite TV show.

Another show debuted in the past week, though, that I've had my eye on.

It's been a while since I got caught up in a  TV drama - maybe since 'The Sopranos'?

Now the question is: Will I be setting my DVR for FX's "The Americans"?

DVR, you ask? Absolutely. I don't know that I'll be staying up for this show at 10pm on a Wednesday night. (Especially if it's an hour-and-a-half every week - that's way too late for me. I think, though, it was just an hour-and-a-half premiere and it'll just be an hour from here on out. Still too late on a Wednesday for me.)

But I've learned one thing about TV over the years: the really good shows, the ones I regret not having watched since the start, chances are they are on HBO or FX. AMC has had a couple, TNT has had a few...but HBO and FX...they rarely miss.

So "The Americans" already has that going in its favor.

Also, it's a period of history in which I can enjoy watching a show being set. I lived through the early '80's. It's not like I was staying up on current events at that age, but a show set in Reagan-era Washington seems like something I'd enjoy.

And the first episode was good. I can see it building up into some tense season-enders. (Let's hope, unlike "Ben and Kate", it gets a chance to finish a season.) That final scene of the first episode (I won't spoil it - but if you watch the episode, enjoy that final scene) sets the table perfectly for what the rest of the series will be like...near-misses and conflict about which side you're actually rooting for.

And finally, for some - I stress some - people my age, "The Americans" marks  reincarnation three of Keri Russell. See, I watched "The Mickey Mouse Club" on The Disney Channel growing up. I kept tabs on it after I was "too old" to watch it anymore, and I knew Keri Russell from the show, but I'm pretty sure she was on past the days I watched it. Then she was on "Felicity", a college-age show, pretty much through my college years. (No, I did not watch "Felicity".) That kind of melded into her movie career, and now she's got this show - an adult show for people who kind of grew into adulthood with her.

I leave you with a look at the current Russian spy when she was an American kid:

New Thing #22: Ben and Kate

"Ben and Kate" is a wonderful show. Yes, I said wonderful.

It's probably my favorite new show on TV. Or my new favorite show. Or both.

It's part situation comedy...part situation drama. But not too dramatic. And it's not the funniest show you'll watch.

It's just a really, really good TV show.

I'm stretching the meaning of "new" for this "New Thing", by the way.

I started watching "Ben and Kate" very late in 2012, and then caught up on all the episodes either even later in 2012 or early 2013. But it's still new enough that it qualifies as one of my "New Things In 2013"...and I'm telling you about it on a Tuesday so you can watch it tonight.

When I started watching "Ben and Kate", at the indirect suggestion of my friend Kevin (he tweeted about it), I expected it to be a drop-dead funny show. I don't know why - I guess I figured as a lead-in to "New Girl" (also one of my favorite new shows, though I feel like it's a well-established veteran at this point) it had to be funny. I expected to be laughing non-stop. What I did not expect was that I'd be brought to the verge of tears. It's quite touching. (For what it's worth, I went in expecting "Ben" and "Kate" were romantically involved. But they're brother and sister. Which is the root of much of the touchiness. The emotional touchiness. That other thing would be sick.)

That's not to say it's not funny at all. It is. It has everything. I guess that means it's extremely well-written...but not to the point where I'm sitting there analyzing everything that goes on. It's just a solid half-hour of TV. (My friend Justin was the one who pointed out to me that Nat Faxon, who plays Ben, won an Oscar as one of the writers of 'The Descendants", which could be why I seemed to recognize him when I first started watching the show.)

I enjoy the show. And it's so good I'm sure I would enjoy the show whether or not what I'm about to say was true...but it's true, and it's part of why I quickly became enamored with the show: I have a crush on Kate Fox.

To be clear: I do not have a crush on Dakota Johnson, though she is an attractive woman and all. (She's the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith...I think it goes without saying she's attractive.) I have a crush on Kate Fox. The TV character. She might be my favorite TV character going right now - she's smart, funny, goofy, somewhat socially awkward, but in an adorable way, and she'd do anything for her daughter. "Ben and Kate" is a good show...I'd watch "Just Kate" if that existed.

The other characters on the show - Ben, Tommy, BJ - they're all strong too. It's worth your time to check it out. 8:30 on Fox.

New Thing #20: Stuff You Should Know (The TV Show)

I can't remember the first podcast I listened to. I do know that "Stuff You Should Know" was among the first.

I went to iTunes with the express purpose of finding a podcast that would help me learn something new.

I saw "Stuff You Should Know", from a website called HowStuffWorks.com, on the Top 10 list and tried it out.

I quickly got hooked, and like I do with all things that hook me, I had to go back and listen to all of it.

Luckily there wasn't much that I had missed and it didn't take me all that long to catch up (although I probably spent more time on it than I should admit), and I've listened as it grew from a podcast to, now, also a television show.

Saturday night "Stuff You Should Know", the TV show, debuted on the Science Channel.

Here's a quick rundown of the podcast - Josh (pictured, left) and Chuck (pictured, right) tackle a question that was researched on their site, and banter as they talk about the research.

The podcast went from 4-5 minute tidbits with Josh and a couple of other different people before Chuck became the permanent co-host and the show extended to 18 minutes to 40 minutes per episode.

It's all so simple, but it's very, very good. A lesser man might get jealous because of how simple the formula is and how successful that formula has been...but Josh and Chuck are so likeable  that you root for them to succeed with whatever venture they're involved in.

And now it's a TV show.

My biggest fear going into the show was how the podcast would translate - in other words, there's a loyal following of the podcast, but I'm sure for a TV show like this to succeed it needs to develop a larger following. So does the TV show cater only to the existing fans, or is it universal enough so that anyone can watch and be entertained?

After two episodes, I'm leaning towards the latter. (Although I think that remains to be seen, because I'm looking at it through biased lenses.) I hate to admit it, but I wasn't expecting the show to be great - I thought it would be cringe-worthy at times. It wasn't.

The theme song was somewhat cringe-worthy. At the very least it may be a verse too long. But everything else was pretty good - the shows were funny, the plots were well-written - true to the podcast and drawn out into a half-hour episode, and Chuck and Josh were really good actors. Surprisingly good. That was my biggest takeaway.

If I've sold you on it, "Stuff You Should Know" now has its own website, with all kinds of extra information. The Science Channel airs "Stuff You Should Know" Saturday nights at 10pm. The episodes will also be available the next day on-line...and the first show, a funny one about Alien Hand Syndrome, is being offered now for free.