Mike Hughes on TV

OK, it was mostly a super night for TV viewers. Here are a few of my views of the Super Bowl telecast; please add yours:

1) The top-notch pre-game music offered opposites. First, Queen Latifah had the spledid backing of a children's choir; then Carrie Underwood worked alone, for a strong version of the National Anthem.

2) Carrie, incidentally, looked rather terrific in white. That would have been Elvis' favorite outfit, once he lost 100 pounds or so.

3) Phil Simms bumbled badly in trying to talk about the effect of moderate weather and in trying to praise the Saints' clock management at the end of the first half. For the rest of the game, however, his comments were on the money.

4) Yes, it's good to see the Who guys back in action. Still, they sometimes seemed almost like afterthoughts, as they banged out their songs amid frenetic noise and lights.

5) "Undercover Boss," which debuted after the game, was OK. That puts it several steps below great.

6) My favorite commercials were for Bud -- including the human bridge and the house made of beer cans -- and Coke. The latter included a terrific cartoon in which the "Simpsons" billionaire loses everything, then becomes happy with a bottle of Coke.

7) And yes, the game was fun, too. It was quick and efficient, with few penalties and no turnovers -- until the one that sealed the game. Afterward, New Orleans celebrated. Cameras showed people in the streets of the French Quarter, dancing and whooping in a state of bliss. I thought that was great -- until I remembered that they do that every night. I think this particular Super Bowl celebration started Tuesday afternoon.

What can you say of a night in which Lady Gaga was more subtle and sedate than many others?

There she was, with Elton John -- remember when one could be flamboyant merely by wearing big glasses and a sparkly sportcoat? -- and a cast of dozens. It was a rousing Grammy-opener, but other numbers would soon be even bigger.

There was Green Day with a Broadway-bound cast. And a nearly naked pink, swirling around Cirque du Soleil style. And Jamie Foxx and others with a pseudo-opera intro. And robots and soldiers and much more.

Individually, each of these numbers was terrific. Live performances became instant music videos.

The only thing missing was variety. Amid all of this commotion, consider how effective it would have been to suddenly have Bruce Springsteen on the corner of a stage with nothing but a guitar, to have Whitney Houston or Garth Brooks on a stool with nothing but a great voice and a big heart. Music is about that sometimes, too; still, I can't blame the Grammys for trying. Or even for overtrying.

Here are a few other comments; please add yours:

1) Maybe Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" mini-movie will never be really seen. The opening portion was pretty good visually. (Yes, I had my authorized 3-D glasses on; there were some moderately OK 3-D moments.) The music performance by five stars was wonderful. But once the stars arrived, the film was virtually ignored. There was an entire storyline there -- with the little girl waking up to a devastated environment -- that viewers never really saw.

2) On the flip side, Jackson's son gave a beautiful little talk. He summed it up with the one thought that prevails through all the personal quirks: All of his dad's music had one basic theme -- love.

3) The most overhyped notion was that we could vote on which song Bon Jovi would sing. Hey, the three choices were songs Bon Jovi has performed a few zillion songs. This isn't exactly like choosing the new drummer of Beatles or which Jonas Brothers should retire.

4) As a country-music fan, I'm still on the fence about the Zac Brown Band. I'm not sure it has shown that much so far, even for the category (best new artist) it won. Also, it gave the night's first bad acceptance speech. There were supposedly down-home country guys, apparently reeling off a long list of record-company people or agents or other money men.

5) Mostly, the speeches were kept nicely brief. But then, why did the Grammy president get to ramble on for so long?

6) Beyonce won the female-vocalist award. To balance things out, shouldn't someone have jumped on stage to say that Taylor Swift (also  nominated) deserved the award?

7) Overall, this was a night stuffed with great songs and big visuals, including that superb "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Andrea Bocelli and Mary J. Blige. Maybe we could expect it to be great; separately, there were lifetime awards tonight for the show's producer (Ken Ehrlich) and director (Walter Miller). As usual, they did well and thought big; once in a while, however, it wouldn't hurt to think a little smaller.

8) OK, Taylor Swift just won the big one, for album of the year. Why does she keep looking so surprised when she wins? She's won a lot lately, you know.

9) Someone got very cautious with that sound-delete button (which apparently was on some sort of delay). It seemed like we missed half the song by Eminem and others. Who ever suspected that a rap song would include naughty words?

10) Two commercial breaks were bumbled, apparently by my local station. In both cases, an emotional Haiti moment was interrupted by another commercial. The clumsiest went like this: "The news from Haiti is devastating" (cut to other commercial "it's a small price to pay for a great meal."

It's easy to like Canadians and optimists, so people quickly take to the guys in MTV's "The Buried Life."

These are four young guys who travel the country -- two countries, actually -- crossing things off their quirky to-do list. Along the way, they also help others.

Here's a story I wrote about them, followed by a list of upcoming air times. I don't usually put my feature stories in this blog space, but time is tight (the series has already started) and I want the story to get around. Here it is:

Staring at that blank slate known as
adulthood, four friends were stumped.

“It was always, 'What do you want to
do with your life?'” recalled Jonnie Penn.

None of them were sure, so they made a
list. Then that list became an adventure and a TV show and more. “For
us, it's become a way of living our life,” said Duncan Penn,
Jonnie's brother.

That's what we now see on MTV's “The
Buried Life.” The guys roam two countries – the U.S. and their
native Canada – trying to cross off the 100 items on their
things-to-do list

Some are quite easy – “get a
tattoo” ... “plant a tree” ... “donate blood.” Some are
nearly impossible – “play ball with Obama” … “host Saturday
Night Live” … “go to space.”

A few may not be advisable – “swim
with sharks” … “tell a judge: “You want the truth? You can't
handle the truth?'”

And two are kind of repetitious –
“kiss Rachel McAdams” and “approach the most beautiful girl
you've ever seen and kiss her.”

The former – inserted after Jonnie
Penn saw McAdams in “The Notebook” – is still pending. And the
latter? “We keep crossing it off and putting it back on,” Duncan
Penn said.

This is flexible, Dave Lingwood said.
“The list changes. We'll add things on it; we'll take things off.”

The guys – Ben Nemtin, Lingwood and
the Penns – grew up in middle-class families in Victoria, near
Vancouver. They went to college (McGill, Concordia, Victoria) while
finding temporary jobs. “Jonnie and I worked in the oilfields,”
Duncan said.

Still, they wavered on what to do with
the rest of their lives. The list was born.

The first – “open the 6 o'clock
news” – was accomplished quickly, so the enthusiasm grew. The
guys planned a two-week venture in a 1977 RV. “We managed to get 23
things off the list,” Jonnie said.

They've been doing that, off-and-on,
for three years now. Some things came easily – for one day, Nemtin
rattled around all day in a suit of armor – and some didn't. It
took hours to achieve “win and shout 'Bingo' at a bingo hall.”

A detour came when they helped a
formerly homeless man get a truck for his business. More good deeds
followed, Nemtin said, including getting computers for a Los Angeles
school. “We hit Venice Beach and fundraised enough money to get two
new computers for these kids in Watts. It was cool.”

The project had transformed: Every time
the guys crossed off something, they would help someone else. “It's
the way the baby-boomers have raised us ….We are a very idealistic
generation,” Jonnie said.

One important item – “get a college
degree” – is still pending, but another, “start a TV show,”
has been accomplished. The title “The Buried Life” came from an
1852 poem by Matthew Arnold. An impressive trailer – made by Jonnie
Penn on a home computer – reached the company (Reveille) that also
produces “The Office,” “Ugly Betty” and “The Biggest
Loser.”

It took the show to MTV, which had been
planning an image change. “The Buried Life,” said MTV's Tony
DiSanto, represents “everything that we had been talking about and
where we wanted to go.”

The guys have resisted taking the easy
way out, telling people that this is for a TV show. Most things are
done on the sly, with hidden cameras.

Still, full-disclosure is sometimes
required. If the guys do get to play ball with Barack Obama, the
Secret Service will be aware of the cameras.

“The Buried Life”

– New episodes debut at 10 p.m.
Monday on MTV; the first, Jan. 18, was “Attend a party at the Playboy Mansion”

– The second – “Make a Toast at a
Stranger's Wedding” debuted this week (Jan. 25). It reruns often,
including 6-7 a.m. Friday, 5-6 a.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday.

– The next new one, Feb. 1, is “ask
out the girl of your dreams.”

– The full list, subject to change,
is at www.theburiedlife.com

Sometimes the world conspires to make our TV sets (or our DVR's, or our heads) explode.

One of those times is Monday (Jan. 25), when approximately everything is new and interesting. You can get the details by hitting the "TV column" category above, but let me elaborate a bit.

The big step has "Damages" starting its season at 10 p.m. This is one of TV's best dramas -- Glenn Close has won Emmys in each of the first two seasons -- and it starts powerfully. It introduces an easy-to-hate villain (a Bernie Madoff type) early in the hour and adds at the end.

That puts the pressure on another 10 p.m. cable drama, "Men of a Certain Age." It has a pleasant hour that introduces Robert Loggia as Ray Romano's dad.

The big networks have their usual strength, from "House" to "Big Bang Theory." And yes, it really is fun to see Chuck confront Stone Cold Steve Austin on an airliner.

That's just the start. PBS has a terrific Wyatt Earp portrait, followed by a good music magazine show. Showtime and BBC America each give us a new show and a rerun. The latter, via "Top Gear," gives us perhaps our first chance to see a race between a 1949-era car, train and motorcycle. It's kind of fun; the whole night is. 

For a couple weeks, you may have noticed, nothing was happening on this Web site. There were no new blogs, no new TV columns, no signs of life.

That was due to a quirky hotel system, which may or may not have been biased against the island of Tuvelo. Now, however, things are back to normal. I've updated the TV columns through tonight and will soon add more, through the weekend.

Also, I have a lot to blog about. First, I should explain:

From Jan. 8-18, I was nestled into a Pasadena hotel, for the semi-annual Television Critics Association sessions. The sessions went well -- lots of set visits, lots of breaking news -- but there was one quirk: The hotel's Web server would not access Web sites that ended with .tv.

That's a perfectly honorable domain. It actually belongs to the people of Tuvelo, who seem commendable. They have some concerns, especially about global warming and rising ocean levels; if a flood comes, they must scramble to the highest point on the island, which is 15 feet above sea level. They also have a logical suffix for a TV blog. Then the hotel simply never let me connect to it.

That's too bad, because I had a lot to say. Here's the first thing: I'm in the deep minority, but I think Conan O'Brien is wrong.

He was given some prime real estate -- the "Tonight" show at 11:35 p.m. weeknights. Then the ratings there fell in half, with no sign of an upswing. NBC's solution would have saved him: Jay Leno does a lively, monolog-dominated half-hour, with Conan following at 12:05 a.m., keeping the "Tonight" tag.

It was a good plan, which he rejected. Instead, we'll probably see him next season at 11 p.m. on Fox.

There are some benefits to that -- an earlier start, scooping other monologs ... a hipper network to be promoted on ... easy access to the sort of people (from "American Idol," "House," "24," etc.) that a hip network has.

Still, Conan will have to do it all on his own. Nestled behind a half-hour of Leno, he would have been in better shape.