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American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Operation Reconciliation

27 Feb

February 27, 2012


OPERATION RECONCILIATION
Feb. 27, 2012
OCC builds a bike for Veterans Airlift Command and PJD finishes a bike for One Call Concepts. Then, more determined than ever to reconcile with Mikey and Junior, Senior invites Mikey to join him at a painting class.

Last week, Senior’s mother died and he was very upset by the lack of reaction by his sons. Vinnie was the lone person from the Paulie side of the divide to offer his condolences to Sr.

9:01- Jason walks into Senior’s office with drawings for a Veterans Airlift Command wounded warriors bike, with a Purple Heart theme. The way he explained it to Senior, it was like Sr. never heard of it before. Who is running that company? Or rather, who set up that shot for television? Anyway, I’ve said it in recent recaps, Jason is getting more and more freedom and independence in that company. That will be their downfall.

PJD is finishing up the OCC bike. No, that’s not a typo, they are building a bike for One Call Concepts. Forgive me for reusing their lame joke from last week.

9:05- we see Mikey’s Gallery of Bad Finger Paint Art. Mikey is announcing that he is losing weight to raise money for a leukemia charity. Good for him, quite honestly. Not only is he near-morbidly obese, he is 350 pounds,  but it is a good charity. Of course, does anyone believe Mikey will lose much? Anything?

So from 9:01 to 9:08 the show has focused on Jason and Mikey. Can it go anywhere but up from here?

Things take a turn for the better, when Rick, always a professional, takes us through the build of the Veterans Airlift Command bike. He certainly is not the only guy at OCC who knows bikes, but is there a better front man? Senior needs to take Rick along on some of the customer meetings to make OCC look good. I know I said Rick takes us through the build, but really, it was about 3 minutes of build. This is not much of a show about building bikes anymore. If Rick would grin like a moron, put stupid amounts of gel in his hair, act like a pampered obnoxious brat who knows nothing about bikes and insist on saying “motor-sickle” he’d get more screen time. Kissing butt should help too. (Not that I am describing any particular Jason around the shop.)

After the break, Rick took us through another couple of minutes of fabrication. From about 9:08 to 9:15, including a commercial break, the bike is nearly fabricated. And speaking of fabricating, it was pointed out that Jason’s design was nice to look at, very hard to build. The parts are heavy and hard to machine. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone who knew how to build a bike had some say in the design process?

Senior, in an attempt to reconcile, invited Mikey to come to his house and meet wounded veterans and an artist.  “I really do miss him.”

It isn’t a bad idea, they won’t be alone and there will be things going on to keep them distracted from their problems. I’m already on record as saying that Mikey is the bigger jerk here. No matter what wacko condition he put on a meeting, no matter what silly thing he had his father do, he always found a reason to chicken out. Even if the promos did not give it away, there is no way I’d believe Mikey would man up and go. He discussed it with Vinnie and of course, Mikey was suspicious and uncomfortable. (Really, anything to not go.) Vinnie advised him that it would be a strange situation and said Mikey should not go. I think Vinnie was wrong but if it was not Vinnie, it would be Paulie, or his blind assistant, or some random barking dog giving him a reason not to go. As my brother just said, Mikey refuses to get out of his own way.

And not only did he stay away, he didn’t even give his father the courtesy of a reply.

So the OCC crew set  up their easels and did their best to paint an eagle. Hey, an art project! This is perfect for Jason, the big “drawer” at OCC, right? Wrong, he wasn’t there. I guess he wouldn’t do so well without his computer.

Mikey, however, was right in his element painting in his studio with some children from the charity. If nothing else, he is great with kids. But when you consider that the kids’ art was about as good as Mikey’s, that tells the story right there.

Forty minutes in, and for a program titled “Operation Reconciliation” there has been very little attempt at reconciliation. And in teh next twenty minutes, don’t expect much more.

Just before the commercial break we saw the finished OCC Veterans Airlift Command bike and with an eagle head for the headlight and claws on the forks and a great paint job, it was a very nice bike.

The One Call Concepts also had a great paint job, by Nub as usual. Throughout the show I wasn’t too crazy about the bike but seeing it all together has started to change my mind. I like it, though I wasn’t too wild about the green.

At 9:57, we get Sad Senior, unhappy that his sons won’t talk to him. Don’t be fooled, last week he badmouthed his kids to Donald Trump and outright lied about how Paulie treated him.

For next week, Discovery has not listed a description, only a title.

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior March 5th, 2012
Rick’s News

Let the rampant speculation begin.

The commercial, however, told a different story. As part of the settlement, Paulie got the Black Widow bike. Next week he takes it apart, restores it, and makes one little change. The OCC logo? Gone.

We’ll get into it next week but he is making a mistake.

The Saturday Comics: Rex Morgan, M.D.

25 Feb

February 25, 2012

Today I am re-presenting a Classic Repost of one of my more popular, early installments of The Saturday Comics. The cancellation of Rex Morgan, M.D. from the L.A. Times caused quite the to-do and some serious consternation amongst the blue-haired set about a year and a half ago. Let’s go back to November of 2010 when the Mayor’s prostate was on everyone’s lips.

So to speak.

From November 24, 2010

On October 8th, The L.A. Times dropped Rex Morgan, M.D., from its comics page. Reader response was swift and furious.

The departure of “Rex Morgan, M.D.” from The Times’ Comics pages this week has brought in more than 80 e-mails and 50 calls.

“How dare you take away my Dr. Rex Morgan? I look forward to it every day, and now you’ve removed it for a stupid math game. This is crazy,” wrote Helen Crisp of Glendora.

“There are a number of unfunny, inartistic strips that, for reasons known to you, remain on the comic page, while ‘Rex Morgan’ is eliminated? Very sad,” added Stephen Snow of Los Angeles.

“The day ‘Mary Worth’ disappeared from the Calendar section, I started holding my breath for ‘Rex Morgan.’ But to my relief, he got spruced up, married and had a child. It looked like Mary had been the sacrificial lamb and Rex was going to hold the space reserved for basic down-to-earth good advice in health and family matters. Wrong again!” said Dorien Grunbaum of Los Angeles.

Many of you may not be familiar with Dr. Morgan.

Created in 1948 by the late Dr. Nicholas P. Dallis, a psychiatrist from Scottsdale, Arizona, Rex Morgan M.D. continues to be the quintessential family practice physician.

Dr. Dallis created Rex Morgan not only as an exciting and entertaining comic strip, but also as an educational tool: a comic strip that would heighten the awareness of readers about the importance of modern medicine.

Over the years we have seen Rex deal with the compelling medical and social issues of our times — drug abuse, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diabetes, organ transplants, adoption and sexual harassment, just to name a few. There have been more than a few documented cases in which readers were actually able to identify illnesses in themselves from information presented in Rex Morgan M.D.

Oh, wow, just the thing to read on a Sunday morning, nestled between Beetle Bailey and Popeye. Sure, Hagar the Horrible may give you a chuckle, and you might laugh at Blondie, but only Rex Morgan can get you to think about having your prostate examined.

Here are the final strips seen by L.A. Times readers, which was ironically the start of a bold new storyline:

This is something totally new, a prostate-based comic strip. You may recall that Brenda Starr died of breast cancer in 1962, and that as far back as 1956 Prince Valiant was concerned with some strange genital warts, but never had the subject of prostate cancer been broached in an American comic strip. (In Japan, Picachu had already taken a prostate exam in a memorable 2008 storyline.) Previous Rex Morgan strips focused on acne, toe fungus, and thinning hair. This was by far the most controversial plot.

Readers of the L.A.Times missed some startling developments. On October 25th, news of the Mayor’s prostate broke on Twitter:

On October 28th, the prostate had gone viral across the internet.

Gotta hand it to  , that strip stays up to date. And before you ask, no, I did not alter those strips in any way.

I’d like to tell you how this exciting story ended, but as of today, the story still has not come to a conclusion.

I do, however, have a few suggestions.
A- Having become a viral sensation, the Mayor’s prostate becomes the host of a weekly webcast featuring Jackass-style stunts.
B- Rex Morgan, sick of all the attention, tells the Mayor to “jump in a lake and your stupid prostate too.”  The Mayor dies of prostate cancer.
C- Rex Morgan assists in Mary Worth’s suicide, leaves town.

I just have to wonder how a strip like this stays popular. Bit of a downer, I think. The last time I read such a depressing strip was when the chemotherapy made Charlie Brown’s hair fall out. (What, you never wondered why he was bald?)

Remember kids: Prostate cancer, like Rex Morgan, M.D., is no laughing matter.