Category Archives: Boob Tubery

Boob Tubery

A Recap Disclaimer

PLEASE NOTE:  We have received complaints from readers who object that our episode recaps of the popular HBO series The Saga of the Clan Saga contain too many details of the episodes they review. We know that many people choose to record and binge-watch this series yet still want to be a part of the recap community. We also know that many people have never, ever seen an episode of this show but have contemplated doing so at some vague point in the future and do not wish to have their hypothetical viewing ruined for them.

Therefore, we want to warn all potential readers that the following recap of the most recent episode of The Saga of the Clan Saga contains a considerable number of such details that may fit the legal definition of “spoilers.” (See Korematsu v. Television Without Pity, 2005.) We realize there is much disagreement on this point, but we continue to believe that the best way to discuss an episode of a television show is to talk about what happened in it.

For those of you who have seen the most recent episode, please be advised that the writer of this recap included references to the series of books upon which The Saga of the Clan Saga is based. We are aware that many viewers have religiously read these books, but that not all you have. We’re also aware that many of you have read only some of the books, or read them while your attention was diverted, or may have thought you read the books but only dreamed you did.

We recognize that the events from the books alluded to in this recap may or may not be represented in future episodes and therefore may serve as spoilers. Please be advised that this will be especially true for those of you who have only read volumes 1 (“The Dragon-Scorch’d Plains”), 2 (“The Most Encarnadine Nuptials”), and 3 (“Prelude to the Afternoon of the Long Axes”). If, as many fans have, you chose to pick up the Saga from volume 4 (“The Blood-Soaked Plains of Samovar”), you may be safe, but we cannot vouch for this 100 percent.

If you have only read volume 7, it is imperative you DO NOT read this recap UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. We cannot stress this enough. If you do, you will understand immediately why we have warned you not to, but by then it will be far too late to atone for your horrible, horrible mistake.

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And now, without further ado, we present our recap of episode 507, “The One Where Wrathmire Kills Galdarf and Assumes the Throne, Only to Be Thwarted By His Bitterest Rival and Burned Alive”

Boob Tubery, Pointless Nostalgia

Embracing the Audience of One

Years ago, I worked on a biography of Jean Shepherd, performing research and doing interviews with people who worked with him. As I’ve written on this site many times, Shepherd is one of my artistic heroes, someone whose craft I admire as something uniquely his own which has no real parallel before or since. But the more I delved into his life, the more it seemed he was a damaged, strange man.

It was difficult to find people who knew Shepherd in his heyday and were also willing and able to talk. Many of his contemporaries and friends had died; others, like Jules Feiffer and Paul Krassner, proved difficult to contact. The same went for people I knew or suspected were influenced by him. I was aware Terry Gilliam had been a Shep fan in his youth, and I even had some contact info for the man, since the company I worked for had done a few books about his films. Alas, he did not return my faxes. (Yes, this was a long time ago.) Garrison Keillor wrote me a brief but polite letter in which he stated he grew up in Minnesota and therefore Shepherd–whose primary radio work was done in New York–didn’t really have any influence on him.

One of the few people who’d worked with him whom I was both able to get in touch with and wanted to talk to me was Fred Barzyk, who had produced most of Shepherd’s television work for PBS. At Barzyk’s invite, I was able to go to the WGBH archives in Boston and view some of these shows, most of which have not been seen on TV in decades. This included an odd show where Shep stood on a dock in Boston Harbor and delivered a version of his radio show there directly to the camera, monologuing for half an hour and then abruptly stopping.

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Boob Tubery

Mad Men and the Excuse of Truth

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The Times‘s City Room blog had a post earlier this week that I found fascinating, from a writer’s perspective. It concerned the season debut of Mad Men; specifically, a scene in which ad execs from Young & Rubicam dump water on civil rights protestors. In reaction to this indignity, one of the protestors says, “And they call us savages.”

Many critics found the line clunky, but the words were taken verbatim from the Times report about the real-life 1966 incident that the scene mimics. About this particular line of dialogue, the show’s creator, Matt Weiner, said, “His story was such that I thought it inviolable.”

Now, Weiner has created one of the most critically acclaimed shows of our era, while I have written three as-yet unpublished novels and way too many words about Edgardo Alfonzo. However, I have to raise a slight objection to this line of thinking. Because as far as I’m concerned, when it comes to writing, nothing is “inviolable.”

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