Here we go. And feel free, for those of you who are interested, to post what you think the final score will be. The closest person gets absolutely nothing.
6:02: Ah. It’s the pre-kick show. Not sure if the new commercials have started. What’s a bit of a bummer is that a number of them have already gone up on line. I think that sucks. Takes some of the fun out of it. Aside from the Darth Vader commercial I have stayed away from them. Anyone know the time of kick off?
6:06: The problem is that I spend so much time speeding through commercials via DVR that I can’t tell what’s old and what’s new. Of course, if I see one that’s super bowl themed, that will be pretty obvious.
6:10: Not that I have any emotional investment, but I’m pulling for the Packers since the Steelers beat the Jets.
6:17: Play 60. Getting kids to exercise. Sounds fine to me.
6:24: Kathleen said, in regards to Christina’s prolonged anthem, “Aw, c’mon, Burlesque didn’t do THAT well; knock it off.”
6:25: Kung Fu Panda: “We will Wok you.” Brilliant.
Cute McDonalds commerical of a father bear taking his son out for burgers and fries…by accosting a parked tourist. It’d be funnier if the Chicago Bears had been in.
6:27: Great Fox ad which had the stars of various Fox series tossing a football from one to the other. My only quibble? House would have stabbed it with a scalpel.
6:36: Here’s a book title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombo.
6:43: What’s scary is that it took the contractor five weeks over schedule to redecorate using the one six pack of Bud.
6:45: Well, I’m not gonna buy an Audi, but “Hit them with the Kenny G” is my new slogan for dealing with difficult situations.
6:50: The single most disturbing Doritos ad ever. I’m not sure if the subtext was homosexual or fetishist or both.
6:51: Pepsi Light. The wife has serious issues and if you want to lose weight, drink water.
6:56: You know, I always figured period pieces were hard to get approved because you can’t do product placement. Bud Light proved me wrong.
6:57: GREAT Chevy commercial. “I didn’t even know this town HAD a volcano!”
7:01: There seem to be quite a few pople getting hurt in Pepsi Light commercials. What’s up with that?
7:03: I had to go back and watch the Doritos commercial twice before I fully understood it, it went by so fast I get it now: Doritos bring you back to life. I dunno: I never really thought of Doritos as an energy food.
7:05: New commercial giving us a bit more footage of “Oblivion”…I’m sorry, “Cowboys and Aliens.”
7:06: Well, I think Kia Optima wins the prize for crossing the most genres in a single commercial. I counted: espionage; myth; science fiction; ancient Aztecs (not sure what genre that would be).
7:08: Oh, that reminds me: We have M&Ms to eat during the Superbowl.
7:15: A Bridgestone commercial tied to something everyone can identify with: emailed sent to the wrong people. Nice.
7:17: GoDaddy commercials may have hit a new low.
7:18: “This is our House.” I was wondering where they were going with that commercial.
7:23: Wasn’t sure where they were going with the Budweiser “Tiny Dancer” commercial and now that they got there, I’m still not sure.
7:24: “My heart told me to.” Another line I’m going to be using.
7:25: Did I mentioned I wrote the novelization for “Transformers 3?”
7:27: An All American car company. Okay.
7:27: I love that he was reading “1984” for the Motorola version of an iPad. But good lord, did you see that girl? She was gorgeous. Features like porcelain. Don’t be surprised if a few years from now she’s a film star and people point to this commercial as an early appearance.
7:31: A CGI fantasy epic promoting Coke? Okay, well…that was kinda cool.
7:32: Thor looks more kick ášš every time I see it.
7:33: So that’s the thirty second version of the Vader VW commercial. I’ll tell you this: People who seem to think that actors cannot truly act if their faces are completely covered (and thus Spider-Man always has to have his mask ripped off at key moments) should watch that kid in the Vader costume. His body language conveys a host of emotions effortlessly.
7:39: From the people who gave you Betty White and Abe Vigoda comes Roseanne Barr and, dammit, I’ve blanked on his name. Richard, Robert…nuts! What’s his name!? Great commercial, though. Richard Lewis! That’s it.
7:49: Why are you checking your facebook status while in the car.
7:50: First footage I’ve seen of “Captain America.” That’s gonna be a hëll of a one-two punch with the Thor movie.
7:51: I wouldn’t have thought a Carmax commercial could be funny. Nicely done. Now I just wish I had a clearer idea of what Carmax was.
8:01: Larry the Cable Guy on the History Channel? Isn’t that kind of like having pro wrestling on the discovery channel?
8:03 Dammit, that’s not an android. That’s a robot. I don’t care that it’s called Android. Roy Batty was an android. This was a robot. Get your gøddámņ terms right.
8:08 The Daytona 500 or, as we call it around here, “Cars: The Live Action Movie”
8:09: Apparently Claymation style is the animation style of choice for the Superbowl.
8:10: Caroline is a little disappointed that it’s the Black Eyed Peas. For some reason she was under the impression it was going to be Bowling for Soup who did the theme song for “Phineas & Ferb.”
8:22: I’ve never heard Caroline say, “Is it done yet?” as much as she did during that half time show.
8:23: Sleepys. Most risque mattress commercial ever. Hmmm. Now that I think about it, we could use a new mattress…
8:25: “The Daily.” Sounds interesting. Let me check who’s doing it.
8:26: Rupert Murdoch. No thanks.
8:27: Get the NFL anytime, anywhere. But only if you’re a Jets fan.
8:37: The cowboy who got hit with arrows in the cars.com commercial should really have been wearing a red shirt.
8:38: That was OZZIE? He looked worse than usual. The commercial was funny, though. Bieber is starting to become omnipresent.
8:43: “Pirates.” You need to see that shot where the sword comes through the door in 3D.
8:44: “Cram it in the boot.” Why do I have the feeling that’s a euphemism for something?
8:50: Hyundai wins the award for commercial that kicks ášš in 3D.
8:50: Okay, well…I like Timothy Hutton in “Leverage.” Wasn’t wild about his commercial, though.
8:51: I’m now convinced that Coca-Cola could achieve peace in the Middle East.
8:53: Boy, that looked like Adrian Brody doing a beer commercial.
8:54: I like the Carmax commercials and STILL don’t know what it is.
8:54: “X-Factor.” Simon Cowell IS…Jamie Madrox.
9:00: Nice commercial, but I’m still not anxious to go back to Detroit anytime soon…
9:21: What a GREAT NFL commercial! A ton of sitcoms old and new saluting the fans. My hands down favorite commercial of the night.
9:32: How did I just KNOW the Bud Light commercial would end with dogs playing poker?
9:34: Not a bad Hyundai ad.
9:35: Well, at least it was a Pepsi Max ad where no one got hurt.
9:35: “Rio.” Or, as I think of it, “Enchanted Tiki Room: The Movie.”
9:44: Bridgestone’s moral: Always try to avoid killing animals. You never know. I like it.
9:45: Go daddy’s string of commercials that do nothing to make me want to use them continues.
9:46: Yeah, well, when you’re Diddy you can afford a Mercedes.
9:48: Gregory House: Meaner than Mean Joe ever was.
9:57: Verizon: Please tell me we’re done with the “Hear you now” guy.
9:59: I can finally stop walking through the drive through window. God, I love Brittany.
10:00: “Terra Nova.” Science fiction on Fox. What could possibly go wrong?
10:02: As a totally irrelevant aside: This is a pretty exciting game.
10:06: Well, Jets fans should be happy.
10:09: Okay, sorry, “Wendys”…I’m not making the connection between a good sandwich and smacking someone.
10:22: And with a second and final, “Yes, I really did write the Transformers 3 novelization” I’m signing off. Talk amongst yourselves.
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…and there goes Wally’s prediction.
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J.
Wow. I think the producers of Happy Feet should sue the makers of Rio.
Birds and music. Yeah, there’s similarities, but the similarities are in really obvious things. So far I’m not seeing much of a Global Warming message and Rio is a vastly different location.
Now if only they’d break up House/Cuddy…
I’m waiting for someone to call them “Howdy”
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It’s not quite as good as the “fore-teen” mashup, but …
WHAT COULD GO WRONG?!?!?
1.) Brandon
2.) Fox = Oil; Sci-fi = Water
3.) Dinosaurs??? Seriously???
4.) Time Travel?
COME ON MAAAAAN….
You know I was sarcastic, right?
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I still remember when they screened the pilot for “Sarah Connor Chronicles” at SDCC. The audience was 100% with it, everyone loved it, and then at the end it said, “Coming soon…from Fox,” and a deafening moan arose from the crowd. Everyone knew the show would never last just from that.
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PAD
Except I don’t think FOX really did anything wrong with Sarah Connor Chronicles. They premiered the thing after the Super Bowl. They had tons of commercials for it. They worked out a deal to give it a second season.
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Yeah, they put it on Friday night. You know what? They have to put *something* there, so it’s either the show we love or the show somebody else loves. Plus, this season Fox moved Human Target from Fridays to Tuesdays and ratings went *down* instead of up, so I’m still not convinced that Friday is what’s hurting shows. They had to put it on American Idol night to get decent ratings.
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So I don’t think FOX is out to get science fiction.
@Jason: I’m not sure what schedule you were following for “Human Target” but it certainly wasn’t the one I was watching.
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The series premiered on a Friday night, but the next 4 episodes were on Mondays. Beginning with the 6th episode, the series aired on Wednesday nights where it’s been since (except for one recent episode which aired on a Monday night).
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As to “American Idol night,” that show is airing Wednesdays and Thursdays this season. (It was the Thursday night airing that, for some bizarre reason, prompted the CW to repeat its Thursday night line-up on Friday night the week before last, pre-empting the returns of “Smallville” and “Supernatural.”) Additionally, “Human Target” only appeared on “American Idol night” for the last 7 episodes of its first season and, counting this week’s season finale episode, only 3 episodes of the second season.
Joseph, I just checked the dates, and I was definitely off. I think what I was remembering was that it was originally scheduled for Friday and it did premiere on Friday (where its premiere got the highest ratings of the series, though that’s not unusual for a premiere), but you’re right that it’s mostly been on Wednesday.
Better batch of ads that last year. My fave was the Motorola ad, basically for playing off the Apple 1984 ad without aping it. The Coke ads, the NFL sitcom ad, and the Mean Joe Greene spoof were also high on my list.
My choice for biggest dud, alas, was the Capt Amer ad. It made the film seem generic, and I don’t know why they are playing up the “first Avenger” stuff.
Had the same reaction to the X-Factor ad as Peter. I suspect we can look forward to a similar joke in the comic.
they are “playing up” the First Avegner bit so that it will more firmly tie the character to the big “Avengers” movie they are going to be doing.
The “First Avenger” bit also provides some cohesiveness with international releases. In some countries the film will just be titled “The First Avenger” since a film called “Captain America” is a tough sell in certain markets.
What I don’t understand is why the countries in question are Russia, the Ukraine and South Korea. Aren’t those our allies?
I’m not sure I buy the “those countries aren’t friendly with us” idea. Every single person who goes to the movie in those countries will know it is an American movie. They’ll all notice that the main character is dressed in the American flag. If anti-Americanism was really a problem, the name wouldn’t matter because nobody would be going at all.
So, I sat down to watch the commercials with about 10 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. I caught up to game with 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Which means I guess I’ll be catching a few commercials online tomorrow after all, provided there were any left to really see in the 4th quarter.
So now that Marvel is getting into live action TV, I’ve been hoping against hope for an X-Factor TV show. Seems like an obvious fit to me – the detective genre is a primetime TV mainstay, most of the characters’ powers can be done on a TV effects budget, and the fact that the characters are open about their powers and hold down day jobs helps to differentiate it from other more conventional super-hero shows. So, does the existence of this Simon Cowell program (which already thwarts my Google searches) hurt the chances for such a show?
It hurts the chances of the show being named X-Factor. If there was a serious effort to make the show, it could easily be renamed “Madrox.”
That solution occurred to me as well. Then I wondered if there would be concern that “Madrox” doesn’t have the same name recognition, or implies more of a focus on Jamie than the entire ensemble.
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It also occurs to me that perhaps I’m overthinking something that is entirely hypothetical.
The name recognition doesn’t seem like a big deal. X-Factor isn’t a huge property. Anyone who knows it is likely to recognize the name Madrox. Chances are, the network would insist on calling it something like “X-Men: The Madrox Chronicles.”
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Jamie already has more of the focus. He’s the primary antagonist in an ensemble, like Angel was in his show. Angel’s other characters didn’t suffer for that. In fact, I’d say the best way to an X-Factor series to a network is “It’s Angel, a show that lasted 5 years and had a very loyal fanbase, just with an ex-superhero as the detective instead of a vampire.”
7:03 Doritos commercial: So Doritos can not only bring the dead back to life, they can bring the CREMATED dead back to life? Hard to believe you can get a small bag of ’em for less than a dollar. I wonder if the ingredients include Lovecraft’s essential salts…
8:01 Larry the Cable Guy’s new show: I got an advance copy for review, and review I did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up7pvPqNkuU
And on a completely unrelated side, does anyone know when Arrowette will be in an episode of YOUNG JUSTICE and not just the opening credits? I want to review the show, but I’d like to have seen all the series’ regulars at least once first. Heck, I don’t even know if she’s called Arrowette!
It isn’t Arrowette, it’s a new character named Artemis. She might have some things in common with Arrowette, she might be a version of the current Speedy, or she might be a rogue Amazon. We don’t really know anything about her.
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I believe they said she shows up in the fifth or sixth episode, so it should be really soon.
Thanks for the info — and reminding me why I waited before reviewing it. I am very surprised that they stuck her in the opening credits, yet held off this long before introducing her. Still, it’s not without precedent: We were supposed to be surprised when L finally appeared on the anime series DEATH NOTE — except he was shown in the opening from the very start!
Aw, it’s only a few episodes and they’re already hinting at her. By the time the show reaches episode number 50, the first 5 episodes won’t seem like much.
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I actually prefer this way of doing things to the everyone-in-the-first-episode manner. If you break up the first episode into two parts (as it was meant to be in some ways), the first episode introduces Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad. The second episode is about Superboy. Then the third episode is about Miss Martian. They go a couple episodes reaffirming those new characters, then introduce Artemis. That gives the characters a lot more time to breath, as opposed to trying to establish all the characters at the same time. A lot of amine is done that way and it seems more realistic to me.
Carmax is a service you can use to get the full history of any car you have the VIN for – who owned it, how many miles were on the odometer whenever it was sold in the past, whether it’s ever been wrecked – and how badly – etc.
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There’s a basic free service that gives some of that data, and a not-very-expensive paid version that give all of it.
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Basic principle – if a used-car salesman tries to dissuade you from pulling a Carmax report – walk away. (More than a few reputable dealers will pay for the report themselves.)
No, that’s Carfax.
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PAD
The fact that the two are confused so easily goes to show how much of a failure that commercial was then.
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Carfax? Heard of. Carmax? Never heard of.
CarMax is a used car company; they aren’t affiliated with any particular manufacturer.
I bought my current car from them back in June, and have been very satisfied. Of course, it helped that the person I bought from was the guy who owned/operated the comic shop I bought from for around 15 years, all told. Yes, I would (and did) buy a used car from that man. (Hi, Gib!)
Thanks PAD, fun as usual. I turned off every movie ad, since the powers that be decided some time ago that a movie trailer should give away major scenes and plot points. I still am not sure why big directors, who i would think have more clout, allow their movies to be ruined?
An exception was the Transformers 3 trailer I saw in the theater (not last nights)which showed a different version of of Apollo 11.
BTW did you write the novelization for Transformers 3D?
Carmax is a multi state used car company. I once bought a Olds Alero from one here in the Atlanta area.
Several Carmax locations not only sell used cars, but also new ones, with no-haggle pricing. I bought my new Camry (in 2003) from Carmax/Laurel Toyota, after no one else locally could beat their price. (And, no, I don’t work for them or have any other ties.)
PAD: Larry the Cable Guy on the History Channel? Isn’t that kind of like having pro wrestling on the discovery channel?
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SHH! Don’t give Vince McMahon any new ideas! Bad enough that pap has horned in on the SciFi Channel. (Don’t bother correcting me. I don’t care what that channel has done to its name in a vain attempt at “rebranding”–there are no “y’s” in “science fiction” or its abbreviation.)
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Chuck
Oddly, I can think of some justification for pro wrasslin’ on Skiffy – it is a fictional program featuring heavily-muscled, half-naked warriors boasting of their physical prowess. Sounds like most of the Klingon-centric DS9 episodes to me…
PAD,
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Did you happen to catch Obama’s interview with O’Reilly during the pregame? I thought he did good job of handling the questions, and he even made me laugh empathetically on one occasion when describing how seriously he takes the game. I won’t ever vote for the guy, but sometimes he seems like he’d be pleasant to share a beer with.
There’s a Harvard professor and a Boston cop who could verify that for you.
I liked the Darth Vader ad, which I saw in its entirety on YouTube today. One thing I especially liked about it was the kid’s reaction when the car started. It made me think of Clarke’s statement about sufficiently advanced science being indistinguishable from magic. Within the narrative of the commercial, from the point of view of the kid, it was magic.
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I couldn’t start my car by remote control, but it used to “beep” hello to my cousins when they were little. Though, in those instances they knew I’d made it happen; they just couldn’t figure out how. Not at first, at least.
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I agree that the kid in the commercial carried off the emotions of the character with his body language. For that matter, I thought Dave Prowse did so as well in Return of the Jedi as Vader looks from the Emperor to Luke as Luke’s being electrocuted.
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I understand that in between the commercials there was, as Andy Griffith once put it, some kind of contest in which two bunches of men in some cow pasture fought over an oddly-shaped pumpkin, while some convicts were running up and down said cow pasture, blowing whistles.
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Wonder how many people watched the game and how many used that time to either restock on snacks in the kitchen or make a pit stop in the bathroom, so as not to miss the commercials?
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Rick
“8:01: Larry the Cable Guy on the History Channel? Isn’t that kind of like having pro wrestling on the discovery channel?”
I wouldn’t put it past them considering the “informative” content there broadcasting these days.