Monthly Archives: September 2008

I like Eccleston partly because his name reminds me of Eccles from The Goon Show, but mostly because he understands that what made the old series so exciting was that every actor who played the Doctor (at least during my years of fandom — Tom Baker through Sylvester McCoy) took the sometimes ludicrous SF content seriously and threw himself into every situation with absolute commitment.

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Beavis and Butthead is often seen as a precursor to South Park, a show that generally provokes a mixture of sympathy and exasperation in me — exasperation primarily because it’s so goddamned on the nose with its satire of topical political issues and celebrity quirks. (“Tom Cruise won’t come out of the closet! Just come out of the closet, Mr. Cruise!”) B&B, on the other hand, isn’t usually about anyone recognizable at all, apart from a very generic Rush Limbaugh parody in “Right On.” Usually it’s just about these two sad fools, trying to squeeze something that doesn’t suck out of life. There’s rarely any fantasy or adventure in their lives — they’re too old for make-believe, unlike the South Park gang, and the show’s writers don’t allow things like a giant, out-of-control Barbra Streisand to come rampaging through the duo’s crappy Texas town. When there’s nothing on TV, there’s just nothing at all. And while in South Park the adults may be self-centered, thick, and sexually deviant, in B&B they’re flatly cruel. When Buzzcut and McVicker fake a fire alarm and lock the boys out of the school in just their underwear (“Wet Behind The Rears”), a line is horribly crossed — but of course, these boys’ absent parents will never file a complaint.

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