I know Spanish
So I was for the final time transferring an episode of John From Cincinnati from my TiVo to my last VHS tape. Why? Force of habit that I will no longer do. I always recorded the last episodes of my favorite TV shows because back in the days if you missed the finale you would never see it again especially as it originally aired.
While doing the transfer the VCR displayed a most obscene message in Spanish...
To translate it the second line it says "John F for the sh*t and p of...."
Now I know the show was crappy but why the foul language. Even in recording this show is still mysterious.
Where would that text have come from? It looks like an overlay, and I'd guess it was the Tivo outputting it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it was a disgruntled "show synopsis" writer doing it?
With our UK Skyplus system, the most frustrating thing is all the "generic" show synopsis you get.
If you take a huge and pretty old show like "M*A*S*H", you'd have to assume that write-ups for every episode are available. Yet, every single time you see an episode on Sky's "Planner", and hit the "i" button for more information, all you see 99 times out of 100 is this generic paragraph; "Those crazy madcap doctors undertake another hilarious plan to raise morale at the camp"
So frustrating!
Out of idle curiosity, and assuming you liked M*A*S*H, what would you say is your favourite episode?
Mine has always been "Dreams".
The whole imagery of Hawkeye being made to "give up" his arms when he can't save someone, and Margaret’s wedding dress all covered with blood was fantastic writing. Add to that the lost "ghost" Klinger sees and the way he eventually "joins" a line of other soldier "ghosts" walking off into the horizon, and you've got probably one of the strongest episodes of any show of all time.
Incidentally, in the UK, we originally saw the whole series with no laughter track. Then when Sky TV launched, they showed the series digitally re-mastered and with the original laughter track put back in.
Personally, and especially when you look at my episode example, I can see perhaps why some people wouldn't "need it", but I think with it in, you are getting the "full experience".
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the show too.
Damn! The Klinger ghost bit wasn't in that episode! That was "Follies of the Living - Concerns of the Dead”"
ReplyDelete(Another great one)
The overlay would come from the VCR it has it's own system, TiVo never cusses.
ReplyDeleteI hate M*A*S*H except for the opening theme song I've never watched an episode. This is rare because I've given everything thing on TV a chance but I don't like this show.
Oh well, that's that conversation buggered then! ;-)
ReplyDelete