White Diamonds

So I caught the annual airing of this commercial today. How old is this thing? I feel like I've been seeing this ad since I was 3. And the lighting? My goodness, I know its been a few years since National Velvet, but Ms. Taylor couldn't have looked that bad when it was shot. I'm going to hedge a bet that this will still be airing 60 years from now. Anyone take me up on it?

Thank You Ellen

Gasp!

This....got an official DVD release? Yay! I loved this show. Watched it every time Nickelodeon showed it on "The Third Eye". Now I can retire my crappy bootleg version. And why is it every time I buy some bootlegged curio at a convention, it shows up on DVD later? I'm looking at you, "Voyagers".

Besides that, this was a fabulously creepy British sci-fi series from the late 1970's. It's about a scientist father (Professor Brake) who, along with his son (Matthew), moves to the town of Milbury to study an ancient circle of stones there. The stones were rumored to have some sort of power, and as the father studies them, he and his son realize that all is not right in the town. Person by person, the townspeople are turning into "Happy Ones". Death and mystery ensue.

Can Professor Brake and Matthew discover the secret of the stones and save the townspeople before becoming "Happy Ones" themselves? You'll have to either buy the DVD, or ask me to make you a copy off the set I own to find out.

P.S. Ooooooh. "The Tomorrow People" on DVD also? My day is made. All's that left is for the USA to put out a version of the blog's namesake "Into the Labyrinth."

Team Duncan

After a marathon viewing of Total Drama Island and the 1 hour special, I am ready to enjoy Total Drama Action! I've got the first 13 episodes ready to go, then will be able to enjoy it on a week to week basis. Plainly, I am rooting for Duncan to take the win on season 2. I find him to be the most consistently funny character after Izzy, but there's no way she'd ever win. Besides, who doesn't like the bad boy?

Journey's End

GRAH! Saturday needs to get here tomorrow so I can bittorrent this.

Plinko Schminko

Looking back at my post of the Tic Tac Dough dragon a few days ago got my mind going on all the game shows I used to watch growing up. Nothing would make me happier than for daytime TV to return to a game show filled schedule. Joker's Wild, Card Sharks, Blockbusters, Hot Potato, Deal of the Century, Tic Tac Dough, Match Game....the list goes on. I could easily spend 24 hours straight watching old episodes of these shows. At least The Price is Right is still on.

I kind of like Drew Carey as the new host. He's still a little green when it comes to hosting: he doesn't explain the rules of the games that well and doesn't have quite the level of contestant rapport that Barker had, but I think he'll get there. I do miss some of the games though. Penny Ante was my favoirte, where the contestant had to guess the right price for an item and pushed the button lighting up a row of pennies with the sound "BBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUP!" to reveal a yes or no answer. Hurdles was also a favorite, probably why I became a hurdler in high school.

However, there is one game on TPIR that I have never been a fan of, and have still never understood it's appeal.



I truly fail to get Plinko. When a contestant is shown a car as a prize, I fully expect them to jump and whoop around the stage. However, whenever Plinko is announced, the contestant goes even crazier, as if a genie has granted them as many wishes and he/she can wish.

Plinko is one of the few games on TPIR that doesn't require some type of skill, it's purely a luck based game. The chip can be placed anywhere on the board and has a chance to go anywhere, like an old pachinko game. First, the contestant has to win Plinko chips, otherwise they only get 1 chip, so the possibility immediately exists to earn much less than $50000 if the contestant can't price. I've seen people miss on 2 or 3 chips and therefore start off being able to earn much less. I've seen people drop 3 or 4 chips into the $0 slot, walking away with almost nothing. In fact, most of the Plinko games I watch end up with the contestant winning $5000 or less; which is no great shake. According to Wikipedia, the most anyone has won on the $50000 Plinko board (replacing the $25000 board in 1998) is $30100. Good for them, so they earned 60% of the maximum total, not the greatest percentage. I just don't like the idea of a game where it's possible for the contestant to get all the Plinko chips and still be able to walk away with $0. Even in Punch-A-Bunch, the worst a contestant can do is $50.

I guess the thought of a possible $50000 is enough to make people spazz out. I'd rather play Hole in One-Or Two!

(Totally unrelated thought: How awesome would it be to have a TPIR Game Show Host Guest Host week? If Drew Carey ever goes on vacation, have old hosts like Monty Hall, Tom Kennedy, Wink Martindale, Jim Perry and Richard Dawson come in to each do a show. That I wouldn't miss.)

Blog Title Explanation (more exciting than post heading)

So I imagine the burning question on everyone's mind is.....What does 'I Deny You the Nidus!' even mean? Well, if you already know the answer to that question then you are my best friend forever. If not, this post will provide the answer.

Back in the early 1980's, Nickelodeon was a fledging television network that I watched faithfully. Being a new network, they did not have a lot of original programming so instead they imported a number of shows from other countries. Many of these shows (primarily from England and New Zealand) had a sci-fi twist to them and were presented under the banner "The Third Eye". About 4 shows comprised "The Third Eye", only 2 of which have stayed with me, as I made sure to watch them every time the came back on in rotation. Yes, the 4 shows were basically looped for quite some time. The first show was called "Children of the Stones", a fantastic sci-fi story about a scientist and his son who arrive in a small town to study the odd stone formations found there and get caught up in a mystery involving the town's "Happy Ones". I'll write more detail about this show on a later date.

The other show, and the one more pertinent to my blog, was "Into the Labyrinth". (presented in three pictures on top of each other, as I don't know how to do side by side pictures yet...sorry)





In this show, three young children in the English countryside are mysteriously drawn to a cave, in which lives an imprisoned wizard, Rothgo. Rothgo is dying as he has lost his power source, known as the Nidus. He asks the three children to help him find it. The Nidus is lost somewhere in time, so once the three kids agree to help, they are sent back in time to start their search for the Nidus. Each episode takes place in a different "time period", which, given the budgtary limitations of the show, all took place in the same set of caves, but with different window dressings, meant to invoke the time period. (Easier to swallow when I was only 10 watching this.) The Nidus is disguised as some object in each time period and only by looking at that object's reflection will the fact that it is the Nidus be revealed.

Now, there is also a nemesis. A witch, Belor, pictured in my header, is also after the Nidus, so she can control its power for herself. In each time period, she is able to disguise herself as a different charatcer. Now, here is where my title comes in. At the end of each episode, the children discover which object is the Nidus. At that point, Belor transforms from her disguise into her real form, points at the object and yells: "I deny you the Nidus!" This causes the Nidus to be thrown through time into a different era. The kids then follow to that next time period and their adventures start anew. Until the last episode, when you can pretty much guess what will happen.

There were three seasons of "Into the Labyrinth." Season 2 follows the same pattern. Rothgo has again lost the Nidus, and the kids have to search for it, with Belor trying to stop them; and yelling "I deny you the Nidus!" until the final episode, natch. In season 3, only the oldest of the children returns, finds a new wizard he has to help with some other object......whatever, Season 3 was bad.

When deciding the title of my blog, I first came up with a number of different variations on my name, then decided that was dumb, as a lot of people have already done that and better than I could do. So one day I was going through my movie collection, looking for something or other to watch (I really need to organize it), when I came upon the DVD's of the show. Immediately, I knew that I'd use "I Deny You the Nidus" as the title. It's a phrase I like and remembered, it reminds me of growing up and the obscene amount of TV I watched, and it wasn't some corny play on my last name Flink (not an easy name to do workplay with).

Thus was "I Deny You the Nidus!" born.

The DVD's I have of the show are bootleg versions I bought from Ebay, copied from the English DVD release. I believe the series is still sold on DVD in England, for those who have region-free players. Or I'm sure Ebay must still have them. I would recommend buying the series and also "Children of the Stones". They might skew a little young, but they are well done shows and a nice throwback to classic sci-fi.

If anyone has heard of or seen these series, let me know. I don't want to be the only soul who enjoys them.

P.S. Oh yes, add "The Tomorrow People" to that list. But that's another post.

Currently feeling.....

Play Me

I really want to....but I just can't

I live for the movie awards season. I love every second of it. The anticipation leading up to nominations and announcements of winners. Normally, I'd take this opportunity to dissect the winners and losers of last night's Golden Globes "ceremony". But, I just can't. That Holocaust of a show that NBC put on sapped me of all my interest in the Globes this year. The awards were announced so dispassionately and so quickly, that any ability to let a winner, let alone a surprise winner, sink in was crushed.

I have never sat through a hour of worse television in my life. I'm 34, and believe me, I've sat through some pretty crap television. I couldn't believe that audacity that Billy Bush and Nancy O'Dell had to actually discuss whether an award was deserved right after they announced it. Just what a winner wants to hear, that the hosts of the show believed it should have gone to someone else, or that your role or show was in the wrong category in the first place.

I can only hope and pray that the Oscar telecast will be better, even if it's affected by the strike. Otherwise, it's going to take me a long time to psych myself up for awards again.