Check into the surreal world of Sacred Heart Hospital with more than 54 hours of viewing on the great 26-disc Scrubs Seasons 1-7 Complete DVD Box Set.
Have a chance to win your favourite Scrubs episodes by visiting Timeless 50 now.
Posts Tagged ‘tv classics’
Scrubs Up For Grabs on Timeless 50 Today
Saturday, November 28th, 2009Fawlty Towers and That Little Black Dress Could Be Yours
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Oh Basil.
Sybil Fawlty may have despaired of her husband and the running of Fawlty Towers but you love this classic comedy and sent it to the top of the Timeless 50. Today the DVD box set is up for grabs along with a visit to Torquay (where the show was set). But don’t worry, you won’t be subjected to Manuel’s restaurant service, you’ll stay in luxury with two nights for two at The Grand Hotel, plus dinner at the Orchid Restaurant and a cream tea.
Visit the Timeless 50 now to win.
Friends Who Stand the Test of Time
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Good friends or hangers on the Timeless 50?
Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Monica and Chandler were the most famous group of friends on TV for a decade. From the show’s premiere in 1994 until its final episode in 2004, millions of viewers tuned in every week to laugh along at the quirks of each character.
Each character in Friends is memorable in his/her own way: Joey is known for his “How you doin’?” line, Phoebe for her crazy jingles, Monica for being a clean freak, Chandler’s use of jokes as a defense mechanism, Ross’s divorces, and Rachel for her relationship issues (eerily mirrored Jennifer Aniston’s real life). One way or another, we all found a way of relating to them – so much so that the Friends’ fictional characters became a part of everyday conversation and took on a life of their own. Remember “the Rachel haircut”?
The show had to come to an end but not before the producers made sure to give the fans what they wanted: Ross and Rachel getting back together (after 10 years of break-ups and make-ups). As with all great comedy programmes, Friends will live on as timeless classic. Who knows…even the Rachel haircut might yet make a comeback?
Timeless Star Trek or Lost in Space?
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Star Trek leaps through time but is it timeless?
The phenomenal success of Gene Roddenberry’s original show spun off six TV series, ten feature films, a plethora of video games and countless novels. No wonder it’s still going strong 43 years on. Today eBay is full of Star Trek memorabilia; Star Trek fans continue to attend conventions, and rumours abound that another feature film is on its way.
And the premise endures: Set in the 23rd century, the Starship Enterprise and its crew of 430 explore the galaxy in search for other life forms, ‘boldly going where no man has gone before’. Through the discoveries, whether back in time or to whole new civilisations, the drama would always deal with real issues of the time: war, slavery, racism, gender equality, poverty. And it’s this ideology that fans hope future Star Trek films will uphold, and those skin tight costumes, of course.
Is Star Trek timeless or just lost in space? You decide.
Doctor Who Time Travels into Timelessness
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
The ever-changing face of Dr Who has allowed for this highly popular television series to be reincarnated over and over again. With the first ever episode airing in 1963 and the series still going strong, Dr Who surely is the true definition of timeless. No wonder it’s listed in the Guinness Book of Records both for being the longest ever running sci-fi television drama, and as the most successful TV show of all time.
So what is the secret to Dr Who’s success? It could be the haunting theme tune electronically produced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was so progressive for its time. Or perhaps it’s down to the low-budget special effects; or maybe those super clunky computers of the earlier episodes which were said to hail from hundreds, even thousands, of years into the future. Either way the show is a classic and deserves its place at the heart of British pop culture.
Ensure Dr Who gets his tardis on the Timeless 50 by voting now.
Desperate Housewives’ Secrets and Lies
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
All's not what it seems in Wisteria Lane
Behind the white picket-fenced veneer of suburbia in Wisteria Lane, all is not as it seems. A bevy of surgically enhanced wives spin a web of crime and secrets, with deceased neighbour Mary Alice Young narrating as she follows her former friends negotiating those timeless themes: life and love.
The cast includes former Lois Lane actress Teri Hatcher and glamour mag favourite Eva Longoria Parker. Show creator Marc Cherry, also responsible for producing TV smash show The Golden Girls, is said to have based the character of Bree Van Der Kamp on his mother. Ah, but which character are you?
Currently in its sixth season, Desperate Housewives has millions of viewers worldwide. And the drama continues off the set as well. In 2007, striking Hollywood writers converged on the L.A. set as part of their industrial action to disrupt filming in the Toluca Lake suburb. While in September it emerged that Kathryn Joosten, who plays feisty neighbour Mrs McCluskey, is fighting a second bout of lung cancer.
Is Wisteria Lane up your alley enough to make it into your Timeless 50?
Ugly Betty Woos the Critics
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Can Betty's charms put this sitcom on the Timeless 50?
The trials and tribulations of ‘ugly’ editorial assistant Betty Suarez are captured in this comedy series about the perils of working at a top fashion magazine surrounded by beautiful people.
Hired to assist the blundering, womanising Daniel Meade, who has been thrust into the editor’s seat of Manhattan-based magazine Mode, Betty finds herself at odds with the bitchy people she has to call colleagues. But her dogged insistence that being nice is what matters wins through, making her Daniel’s go-to gal, much to the annoyance of the others.
Film star Salma Hayek is an executive producer of the show, which has run since September 2006. She adapted the series for American television after acquiring the rights from a Colombian telenovela, Betty la Fea (yep, Ugly Betty in Spanish). She also guest-starred as rival magazine editor Sofia Reyes.
Ugly Betty became a ratings hit and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy Series in 2007. It has received both praise and criticism for its dealing of the position of the Latino community in US society.
The ‘B-shaped’ pearl necklace Betty wears is said to be a replica of the one worn by Anne Boleyn. So does this fashion world expose make your Timeless 50 or is it ‘off with its head’?
Heroes For More Than One Day
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Will they be Heroes for more than one day?
Famous for its plot twists and clever storylines, Heroes has hooked viewers across the world since it launched three years ago. According to recent research it’s been downloaded over 55 million times – that makes it the most downloaded of all TV shows.
So why the cult following? Beyond the clever scenarios and the fact that Nathan, Peter and Sylas are all pretty hot, the obsession is actually about something much more enduring. Think of the Greek God Zeus who could control lighting and transform himself into animals; or his son Hercules, Heracles like Superman, with super strength. These are character archetypes that have been repeated throughout the history of human culture.
And it’s a story that doesn’t just exist in myth and fiction either. Today, Real Life Super Heroes are on the rise (though we can’t vouch for their superhuman powers). Given the mayhem that the Heroes dish out on a weekly basis, perhaps that’s just as well for all of us.
NYPD Blue’s True Grit Shines Through
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
This hard-hitting police drama ran for 12 seasons, totalling a staggering 261 episodes.
Set in the fictional 15th Precinct of Manhattan, New York, the show followed the exploits of Detective Sergeant Andy Sipowicz, played by Dennis Franz, as he policed the Lower East Side. Yet Franz’s star role took a while to shine through as the early storylines focused more on his sidekick characters played by David Caruso (now seen brooding on CSI Miami), and Jimmy Smits (later of the West Wing). NYPD Blue deliberately tested the boundaries of broadcast restrictions on nudity and swearing, but its compelling storylines and engaging style soon overtook initial condemnations.
Jason Gay of The Boston Phoenix described Sipowicz as a “drunken, racist goon with a heart of gold” who was ‘the moral core’ of NYPD Blue. Former New York police officer-turned-writer Ted Hindenlang says: ‘Dennis Franz must have hung around some of the people I knew because his attitude, his dress, everything seemed so dead-on.’ Watch a montage of Franz’s most memorable moments here:
The show was produced with the help of former New York police officer Bill Clark and broadcast on the ABC network between September 1993 and March 2005. Its legions of fans are still awaiting its return. In 1995, it won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. But is this police drama arresting enough to make it into your Timeless 50?
ER – The Prime Timeless Hit
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Clooney left but ER prospered
ER would never be the same without George Clooney, some viewers moaned, when he left to become a megastar. Rubbish, said the rest: it would get better, unlike many of the show’s stricken patients, who would sometimes fail to make it in spectacular fashion.
Over 15 series, America’s longest-running hospital drama racked up a decade of top ten ratings. It was based on a script by the novelist Michael Crichton, who worked in an emergency room as a student, long before his book Jurassic Park became an Oscar-winning movie. The director of that adaptation was Steven Spielberg, who also produced the first series of ER.
Eventually, it died of fatigue, but not without a final bow from Clooney, who returned for a cameo before the show vacated a primetime slot inherited from Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law. Even these illustrious predecessors weren’t as popular as ER at its height, and its storybook circle of life is a tough act to follow.
Would ER make your prime Timeless 50?