Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 October 29

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October 29

Doctor Who Halloween?

Were any of the original Doctor Who episodes such as State of Decay aired as "Halloween" episodes? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Medeis (talk • contribs) 01:59, 29 October 2013‎

First, as far as I know State of Decay was not a Halloween story. It aired from 22 Nov to 13 Dec 1980. Terrance Dicks had originally proposed a vampire story back in 1977, but it had been pulled just before production because of fears of a possible conflict with the BBC's Count Dracula starring Louis Jordan (coincidentally that production was aired on Halloween by my PBS station for a few years in the 1980's.) I have never read anything about the production team of the time trying to tie SoD to Halloween. @Redrose64: might have some info that I haven't seen though thus my ping for that editor. To the best of my knowledge no story from the Classic Series nor the new one has been written to tie directly into Halloween as an air date. Now there may have been a couple where the storyline took place at that time of year but I am drawing a blank on that at the moment. Also, there have been plenty that would fit into the horror genre - "Blink" can give a person nightmares. As to other holidays the Classic series had one episode that tied into Christmas. "The Feast of Steven" which was episode 7 of The Daleks' Master Plan aired on Christmas day 1965 and had the First Doctor wishing the viewing audience a Happy Christmas at the end of the episode. Of course, the new series has had a Christmas episode every year since 2006. Again this is all from memory so others may have info that I missed or have forgotten. MarnetteD | Talk 05:20, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

I've never seen anything in print that suggests that any of the original Doctor Who episodes were aired as "Halloween" episodes; in fact, until "The Christmas Invasion" (25 December 2005), the only seasonally-themed episode that I am aware of is "The Feast of Steven" (25 December 1965), as mentioned by MarnetteD. If you're hoping to watch this, don't get your hopes up, since this is the only episode from the original run which was wiped before it could be copied for overseas sale, so the chances of discovery in some far-off country are nil. You can still listen to it, as the soundtrack did get preserved (by a fan), and it is included with the soundtracks of the other eleven episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan and with that of "Mission to the Unknown" on a 5-disc CD set, ISBN 0-563-53500-8. --Redrose64 (talk) 07:56, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

Mike & Molly TV show

So...why is this season called "The New Mike & Molly"?--Mark Miller (talk) 04:09, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

Is it? I don't watch the show but a quick look at our article, the CBS web site, and IMDB seems to show just Mike & Molly wherever the title appears with just one exception, the CBS page for the show. And in that case, it looks like it's advertising the season premiere (thus new episodes of the same show) rather than saying the show as a whole is new. Dismas|^(talk) 04:30, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

When they advertise "The New..." it always makes me think they have reengineered something. It could well be just an attention grabber.--Mark Miller (talk) 04:33, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

It is that, but it has a more sinister aspect. Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom inhabited by happy people, broadcasts of episodes of TV series were assumed to be new unless the viewers were specifically told it was a repeat. That's all changed; now, unless it's specifically emblazoned with "NEW", we should expect a repeat. The stations are getting two bites at the cherry here; (a) they get to inject even more hype than they could before, by making what used to be the default expectation something to write home about, and (b) they are relieved of the responsibility of explicitly letting us know if they're rerunning a previously broadcast program. In other words, the default position is a rerun, but not an acknowledged rerun. And you wonder why people get cynical sometimes. The latest utter stupidity is "fast tracked from the USA". It started with a tiny trickle, but it's quickly become a torrent; just about every new episode is now supposedly "fast tracked from the USA". Ludicrous. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 10:32, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

Or the ever-popular "All new..." as if we might have expected a combination of new and old otherwise. "Fast tracked", eh? Does that mean it was delivered electronically, as opposed to being sent by cargo ship? (And never mind that there are hardly any railroads connecting Australia with other continents, be they express or local.) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:22, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

Yes. Hardly any at all. I can't help thinking of Kep Enderby, a former politician, who made a speech in Parliament one day back in the 1970s, including the immortal line: Traditionally, most of our imports come from overseas. (This story might be apocryphal, but if he didn't say it, he should have.) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 12:07, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

Apocryphal or not, it's mentioned in Events and issues that made the news in 1974. But I have searched Hansard for anything said by Kep Enderby between 1 January 1974 and 31 December 1974 which includes the word "imports" - and although there are 10 hits, none of them have the words "imports" and "overseas" in the same sentence. Perhaps it was a speech outside Parliament. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:30, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

The founder of a company I where I worked was quoted in the newspaper saying "We find we are more productive when we design a product before we start to produce it". (Of course, as a computer programmer, I was constantly asked to write programs before they developed the specs for them, and I always suspected that's where Microsoft's dancing paperclip came from.) StuRat (talk) 19:00, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

That's the most infuriating thing ever conceived by the mind of man. It took me too long to find out how to get rid of the damn thing, and only then did I discover I was supposed to have referred to it as "Clippy". Huh? What? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 02:05, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

Hence my thought that it looks like something programmers with no specs make as a gag, only to be amazed when management actually puts it in the final product. StuRat (talk) 02:19, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

You are not alone in asking this question, Mark Miller. On the CBS page a "Mark L" (is that you?) has asked the same question, and the discussions on the aforementioned IMDB page show several people asking about the promos; one person mentions that there is a new showrunner for season 4. The TV Guide answer guy addresses the question here, but not definitively. So, new showrunner, new vocation for Molly, and if I might hazard a guess, since M&M was not scheduled to hit the schedule this soon, perhaps a little emphasis from the marketing department that they are not showing reruns. --LarryMac | Talk 13:32, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

No...not me. I seem to either use my real name or Amadscientist on other sites. I think I am my real name on IMDB. But thanks. That answers a lot.--Mark Miller (talk) 19:01, 29 October 2013 (UTC)