Lagniappe!

I'm still ramping back up to my usual level of go-go-go, but I haven't been totally sloth-like. This column is a lagnaippe for you - a little bonus to go with your usual reading, since this blog has been a little off its feed as I travel through my convalescent stage.  Ensley and I just finished an episode of our weekly movie show "Meet Me at the Movies" (soon to be available through streaming, which has us both excited) that centered on one of the Grand Dames of American cinema, Katharine Hepburn.

So much to discuss there - 4 Oscars, all for Best Leading Actress (Morning Glory [1933], Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [1967, when she tied with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl], The Lion in Winter [1968, making her one of the rare back-to-back winners], and On Golden Pond [1981]). Her insistence on living by her own lights, even when that got her deemed "box office poison" for her tailored slacks and unvarnished opinions.

And her 25-year love affair with Spencer Tracy, with whom she did nine films, including Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat & Mike (1952) which featured Hepburn's athleticism. Tracy was a good Catholic and he never divorced his wife. Hepburn respected that relationship, and did not attend Tracy's funeral, instead spending the day at a friend's house. The friend protected her privacy and screened Tracy's Oscar-winning film Captains Courageous (1937) for her.

There's also The Philadelphia Story in 1940. She made that one after her lover, Howard Hughes, bought her the film rights as a present. There's The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart in 1951 and there's the film she viewed as her crowning triumph, 1962's adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's shattering Long Day's Journey into Night.

Kate Hepburn - what a dame! Treat yourself to one or a half dozen of her films, won't you? If you're feeling silly, start with Bringing Up Baby - Cary Grant, Kate, a leopard, and hey - a dinosaur!

Also, I picked up my responsibilities with BiffBamPop and put out a column about radiation and bug movies. Seemed like a suitable topic, given the last five months or so. It refers to a truly bad movie called The Killer Shrews which starred a very young James Best, who went out to fame as Roscoe P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard. Mr. Best was a gentleman of the first order and he took his final bow on this earthly stage a few days ago.

Lastly, I've been breathlessly watching Better Call Saul, which has been renewed for another season. I wasn't sure about this show at first - spinoffs are a tricky business. For every Maude or Frasier, there is an AfterMASH or The Ropers. 

I can report with complete delight that Better Call Saul is a gem. Watching Jimmy McGill try so hard to stay on the straight and narrow and run into wall after wall, you develop a sort of sympathy for him. I don't want to spoil it - really, this is one you should watch - but Bob Odenkirk is a find whose talents go beyond being the outlandish Saul Goodman we saw in Breaking Bad and the supporting cast is likewise fantastic. Both shows have some similarity in themes - both Walter and Jimmy want respect for their efforts and talents - but BCS is no mere copy of BrBa.

There now - I've given you plenty to go explore!  Back soon!

More Walter White!

Yes, Breaking Bad has ended its run and Better Call Saul is gearing up to explore the transformation of James "Jimmy" Morgan McGill from young, possibly-idealistic lawyer to the criminal criminal lawyer Saul Goodman - you ARE making plans to watch that, aren't you?  But during last Sunday's Super Bowl, Walter White re-emerged.  Sorta.

And then a friend sent me this remix, which I've barely been able to stop playing.  Enjoy, but be warned - it's not entirely safe for work (or to be played around small children, but it's Breaking Bad, so you knew that, right?).

Better Call Saul is getting some extremely good buzz - click here to see what I mean - and watch the trailer. This could be a show worth watching!

. . . and it's so big it needs two nights for the premiere! Plan to tune in Sunday, Feb. 8 and Monday, Feb. 9 at 10:00 Eastern!

Want to know more?  Click here for loads of details from AMC!

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Can they do it again this year?

The Emmy Awards are coming soon! For the first time in nearly 40 years, the Emmys are being broadcast on a Monday night, so make your plans for Monday, August 25 and tune in to NBC to find out if Breaking Bad has a big night - remember, the show is nominated for a whopping 16 of the golden girls!

Ensley and I have been busy talking up Breaking Bad and having a whale of a good time doing it. This past Saturday, we were part of Barnes & Noble's "Get Pop-Cultured" event and we had a wonderful time at the Winston-Salem, NC location talking to fans and swapping stories. Ensley wrote up the event over on his blog and he also talked about our guest spot on CultureSmash as well as our initial "The Ten Percent" column on the BiffBamPop.com site.

We're also gearing up to start drafting Dreams Given Form, our exciting new project for ECW that will have us delving into All Things Babylon 5 for the next year-plus.

Therefore, I think you'll understand if Walter White Wednesday starts to wind down a bit. Oh, I'll still post about Breaking Bad - you can count on that! But I'm going to take a week off, then write about the Emmy results, and then it may be time to let Walter White rest in peace, if he can.

But we've still got Saul!  Have you seen the teaser?  Although Better Call Saul won't air until February of 2015, already I'm getting excited!  How'd Jimmy McGill turn into Saul Goodman? Oh, there's a story to be told!

See you after the Emmys!

The Not-Quite-Walter-White-Wednesday Post

Before I get to the Breaking Bad portion of this week's post, I have something to announce.  Ensley and I have been keeping this quiet until the contract was signed, thus making things official and he broke the news last night as soon as the ink was dry, so I didn't want to wait any longer!  We can happily announce that ECW Press, who first brought you the witty and good-looking research-and-writing team of Guffey und Koontz (hey, it's my blog and that's my story), has agreed to publish another book from us!  Dreams Given Form: The Unofficial Companion to the Babylon 5 Universe will be a complete guide to the complex universe created by J. Michael Straczynski - the five seasons and five movies of the original series, Crusade, Legends of the Rangers, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, the canonical novels, short stories, and comic books will all be discussed, along with a few extra special surprises (we hope!). Dreams Given Form is slated for a fall 2016 publication date, which puts it slap in the middle of Babylon 5's 20th anniversary celebrations. In the next few months, this blog will gradually switch its focus over to the new project (Third Age Thursday??), although Breaking Bad news will still be discussed from time to time.

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And Breaking Bad continues to make headlines.  A TiVo study recently found it was the "most binge watched" show (meaning 3 or more episodes in a day), edging out House of Cards and Game of Thrones. When this was discussed on the Today show, Al Roker grumpily spoiled the ending regarding Walter White's fate, thereby sparking a heated discussion on when spoiler alerts cease to be the polite thing to do.  (When it comes to Breaking Bad, I say spoiler alerts are still a good idea, since it is a show that so very many people are just now discovering. On the other hand, when Whedon's version of Much Ado about Nothing came out last year, I felt it was unnecessary to alert "here be spoilers" since the play was 400+ years old!!)

BuzzFeed hopped on the Breaking Bad bandwagon again with an installment called "34 Things You Probably Didn't Know about Breaking Bad."  Interesting stuff on that list and you knew many of them if you had your trusty copy of Wanna Cook? by your side, although one of them (#32) gets debunked in the book as well.

Breaking Bad continues to live on beyond the small screen - Bryan Cranston is writing a memoir for publishing house Scribner about his time on the show and the spin-off Better Call Saul will be airing in 2015.  (It's been pushed back from its original November air date, but the network has shown confidence in the show by ordering 13 episodes to be produced.) Better Call Saul is going to feature a "flexible" timeframe, so we'll have the chance to see Saul Goodman pre-Breaking Bad, during the show's events, and also after the events of "Felina."  I, for one, am looking forward to seeing him as the manager of an Omaha Cinnabon, but maybe I'm alone on that.

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 The Breaking Bad cast has been busy lately!  Bryan Cranston is both trotting the Broadway boards as Lyndon B. Johnson and has Godzilla coming out in May. Aaron Paul is starring in Need for Speed, which I wrote about in the previous post - I adore Paul, but the film is lousy.  I can sympathize with his desire to do something goofy and ridiculous after years of playing Jesse, but . . . then again, Paul has a role in the upcoming Ridley Scott film Exodus, so I'll hold out hope.

Better Call Saul continues to pick up buzz - see what Jonathan Banks has to say about reprising his role of Mike in the spin-off.

Meanwhile, we're working with our publisher, ECW Press, on some fun events leading up to the May 1 release of Wanna Cook? and we should know more about the official launch event soon.

I'm already picking out my author outfit.  What do you think about Kawaii's Breaking Bad for the opening event? (It's pictured at the top of the post.)  She runs an Etsy store that you can access here and she's got some lovely, creative ideas.  The green is only one of four in her limited Breaking Bad collection - here's a picture of the whole cook!