Posts tagged NBC
Parks and Recreation Halloween Fun Committee Wants You!
12 years ago
This Halloween, dress as the Parks and Recreation Department. The citizenry of Pawnee are in for a real treat.
If you’d like to be the first female President of the USA, then take on the persona of Leslie Knope and inspire all your coworkers to dress as the Parks and Recreation cast. From Leslie to Ron Swanson, everyone can get into the spirit. Meet at the pumpkin patch, local park improvement site, or your very own non bureaucratic office.
As Leslie, take charge of the committee and be perky about it. Remember Leslie is the eternal optimist. Be prepared for lots of public speaking with a smile, even when people are screaming at you. They are just caring loudly at you. For the costume: wear a suit or something casual for the park. Leslie’s bid for City Council wrapped up in Season 4, but you can still sport Knope 2012 campaign merchandise including, shirts, campaign buttons, and pens. Be sure to watch your favorite clips and have some of her memorable lines on hand.
- (On Pawnee) We’re overrun with raccoons and obese toddlers.
- My official statement is that is, overall, a bummer.
- Nothing gets me more amped than Sarah Machlachlan.
- I was in favor of closing the Borders bookstore, not the border to Mexico.
- There are very few things I have asked for in this world. To build a new park from scratch, to eventually become president and to one day solve a murder on a train.
Alternatively, dress as fan favorite Ron Swanson. As Director of Parks and Rec, Ron lets Leslie do all the work. He sports a mustache and staunch Libertarian values. While collecting a government paycheck, Ron believes in as little government as possible and feels the parks department should not even run or maintain parks. He advocates for program cuts wherever possible, and actively works to make city hall less effective, and he especially detests interacting with Pawnee taxpayers. Ron has a deadpan, inexpressive personality and loves meat, hunting and breakfast foods.
Great Ron Swanson lines:
- (On Fishing) It’s like Yoga, except I still get to kill something.
- It’s never too early to learn that the government is a greedy piglet that suckles on a taxpayer’s teet until they have sore, chapped nipples. I’m gonna need a different metaphor to give this nine year old.
- The less I know about other people’s affairs, the happier I am. I’m not interested in caring about people. I once worked with a guy for three years and never learned his name. Best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes.
- You had me at meat tornado
What the What Will You Be This Halloween?
12 years ago
Fans may be bummed about “The Beginning of the End” for NBC’s 30 Rock, but look at the bright side – the season premiere airs this week just in time for Halloween costume inspiration and party banter.
With so many nerdtastic options, which 30 Rock character do you identify with?
How about 30 Rock’s star nerd? Liz Lemon is a self-proclaimed geek and socially awkward turtle, overscheduled, undersexed, single-pretending-to-be-happy-about-it gal. She is a great writer but generally dismisses others (see note about lack of social skills), eats a lot of junk food, and is allergic to dogs and cats, which she thinks is psychosomatic. Are you with me? To dress as Liz, wear dark rimmed glasses, no frills pants and plain jane shirts or cardigans. Most importantly, prepare plenty of nerdy sardonic socially awkward witticisms.
Show them how it’s done this Halloween with some of Liz Lemon’s most memorable/nerd lines:
- If reality TV has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t keep people with no shame down.
- Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize my college futon, with its trademark absence of sex stains? I like my tampons to be cold! I’ll be downstairs.
- Everyone I ever dated in high school was either gay or a girl dressed as a guy to get a journalism scholarship.
- Who hasn’t made mistakes? I once french-kissed a dog at a party to try to impress what turned out to be a very tall 12-year-old.
- What the what?
- Shut it down.
- I want to go to there.
- Pwomp.
- By the hammer of Thor!
If you’d rather be a cad on Halloween, impersonate Jack Donaghy. As head honcho at Kabletown, you’ll need to keep it coming with backhanded compliments especially if you’ll be partnering with a Liz Lemon for the evening. Jack idolizes Ronald Regan and always favors big business over the little guy. For your Jack Donaghy costume, dress to impress: a suit by day and a tuxedo after six. After all, he’s no farmer.
Synergize your costume with some of Jack Donaghy’s best musings:
- You know how the media are. They wait for a mistake and that’s all you are. It happened to Hitler. No one ever talks about his paintings.
- Fifty is the new forty for men. Fifty is still sixty for women.
- Jack Donaghy: You have to fire ten percent of your staff.
- Liz Lemon: What?
- Jack Donaghy: We have to synergize backward overflow.
- Money can’t buy happiness. It is happiness.
- Rich 50 is middle class 38.
- Lemon:I’m feeling pretty drunk.
- Jack: Well, it’s business drunk, it’s like rich drunk. Either way, it’s legal to drive.
- New York gives us a tax break for employing sex offenders. It’s a terrible program.
- C’mon Lemon, what do we elites do when we screw up? We pretend it never happened and give ourselves a giant bonus.
- Lemon:Why are you wearing a tux?
- Jack: It’s after 6. What am I, a farmer?
Or if you like to keep things unpredictable, go as Tracy Jordan for Halloween. Tracy is known to be an off the wall, self-centered prima donna full of conspiracy theories but generally well meaning. You could wear underpants and scream, “I am a Jedi.” Or for the more modest, go with a red jumpsuit and be ready with the lyrics to Jordan’s novelty party song, “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah.” Lyrics include: ”Werewolf bar mitzvah, spooky scary. Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves.”
If you’re going as Tracy Jordan, be ready to party with his gold record winning signature quips:
- Let’s do it again from the top. I want to get it perfect, because “perfection” is my middle name: Unclaimed Perfection Baby Boy.
- I have no reason to hug her except for my love of having boobs pressed against me.
- This better be meetment. I’m importing.
- I’m hosting the International Pornography Awards, and I have to go get an insurance physical so I can fly into the arena in a penis-shaped parachute.
- You remember Donald, my son who’s two years older than me.
- Sabotage? But I’m the one who does that to me!
- I don’t get why people like brunch. What’s the benefit of combining breakdancing and lunch?
Whoever you choose – from the geeks, to the cads, or prima donnas – any 30 Rock character is sure to be a Halloween crowd pleaser, especially if you can finesse those zingers! This season is 30 Rock’s last, so don’t miss out on your final chance to be part of the TGS team and go to there!
What’s the Internet? 1994 Segment of NBC’s The Today Show
13 years ago
Seventeen years ago I was 11, Ace of Base was the biggest band, Mrs. Doubtfire was the box office hit, and The Today Show’s Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel we trying to familiarize themselves with the internet. In the following video segment from January 1994, the news anchors and their staff talk briefly about what the internet is. Gumbel isn’t sure how to pronounce “@”, and no one says “dot” when they read “.com”. They have to ask a crew member to clarify how the internet works. Do you write to it like mail? Is it just in Universities? Does it require a phone line?
This video is a reminder of how unprepared the mainstream media was for the internet.