"Sea Monster Week" (Yes, You Read That Correctly) on Original Iron Chef
Friday, August 15, 2008 | posted by Mike
As much as we enjoy watching Mark Dacascos doing back-blips on Iron Chef America, we miss the good old days of the Japanese original from time to time. When we get particularly nostalgic, we'll swing over to Fine Living, which runs episodes of the classic series.The folks over at Fine Living are very good to us at TVFF. There was the Shopping with Chefs event in NYC that we got to check out. And, in general, they reach out to us on a regular basis. My point is that they are very focused on selling their portfolio of food programs, and that apparently goes for both their original series as well as Iron Chef, because we got a note from them telling us about their special, themed weeks that start next Monday, August 18 at 8 p.m. with "Sea Monster Week."
What's the catch of the day?
Sea Monster Week will feature lots of crazy underwater creatures, starting with Battle Octopus on Monday 8/18, then Battle King Crab, Battle Giant Eel, and Battle Squid, before the formidable Battle Ashura Oyster on Friday 8/22.According to the folks at Fine Living, this will actually be the first of five weeks of themed program blocks.
Labels: Iron Chef
Because Nothing Says "French Revolution" Like a Sequined Cape
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 | posted by Mike
So, I was talking to the Official Father of TVFF the other day on the phone and he was recounting a funny thing that he saw on television.
While flipping through the channels this past weekend, however, Dad came across a show on PBS that commemorated some anniversary of the musical Les Miserables and which featured performers from around the world on stage together. Well, one of the performers looked kinda familiar to him and, when they went back to the studio after the piece was over, the host pointed out that "you might recognize one of the performers" because he was none other than the Chairman himself, Takeshi Kaga!
Now, I think we've always known that Takeshi Kaga -- better known as "Chairman Kaga" of the original Iron Chef -- was a well-respected actor. Apparently, he also has no problems hamming it up by biting into a bell pepper, too.
See, that's the funny thing about Japan. Over there, big stars appear in commercials, something which may be seen as "beneath" big stars over here in the U. S. of A. If you've ever seen Lost in Translation or visited the site Japander.com, you'll also know that even some American actors don't seem to have much problem with doing those kinds of things...if the money's right and the commercial won't be showing up here in the States.
And, sure enough, someone out there in Interwebland was good enough to upload the performance to YouTube, and now you can find it below. Kaga comes in around the 35 second mark.
Labels: Iron Chef
