Great Moments in Springsteen Television History - Sealab 2021

After last month's 30 Day Challenge, I was pretty burnt out on Springsteen.  Even the announcement of Springsteen on Broadway didn't inspire me to get back on my Springsteen fanblog game. (Mainly because this ticketing system seems doomed to fail.  Don't say I didn't warn you! Don't you dare say it!)

So, what have I been doing with my summer?  Re-watching Sealab 2021.  A cartoon that has somewhat been forgotten over the last 15 years, Sealab 2021 was one of Adult Swim's first original shows, along with Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Brak Show.  It was created by Adam Reed, who would go on to greater success with the hit show Archer.  However, those early Adult Swim years left a strong impression on many people around my age, as the shows introduced many of us to the strange, experimental comedy that can be done with almost no budget.

When re-watching any show from your past, it'll be impossible to escape the nostalgia.  Even though I'm watching these Sealabs as I'm getting ready for work, I'm still transported to being a 17-year-old staying up disturbingly late on Sunday nights to get a glimpse of this bizarro show.   There are tons of quotes that instantly come rushing back, though I haven't thought about them in over a decade.  When I saw the above clip, I was shocked by how clearly I remembered it, yet can't believe I haven't written about it on this blog before.

In this episode, the Sealab gang is trapped in a closet.  That's all you really know.  And, Captain Murphy (voiced by the late, great Harry Goz) fights back against a subordinate trying to give him orders, asking if Bruce Springsteen should find a new nickname.  Unfortunately, this was met with blank stares, as the crew doesn't know who Springsteen is.

This episode aired April 7, 2002, so just a bit before The Rising was released.  So, perhaps it was conceivable that in 19 years, people would forget who Springsteen was.  Fortunately, Sealab's prediction was wrong - given his sustained popularity in the 21st century, I doubt a Springsteen reference will fly over anyone's head in four years.

Great Moments in Springsteen Television History: The Sopranos

We have been doing this blog for nearly 3 years, and The Sopranos is my all-time favorite TV Drama.  How did it take me this long to do a tribute to Stevie Van Zandt's role as Silvio Dante on HBO's The Sopranos?!?

According to Van Zandt, Sopranos creator David Chase decided to cast him in the show after seeing Stevie induct The Rascals into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1997, despite him having no acting experience at all.

It should go without saying that the clips I will show in this post are not even remotely safe for work.  And there will also be spoilers.  But the show has been off the air for seven years, so if you haven't seen it by now, what are you waiting for?

Silvio starts off as just a regular mafia soldier with very little to make him standout from the others. He keeps a low profile, runs a legitimate(ish) business in the infamous "Bada Bing" strip club, and is fiercely loyal to his family and his boss.

However, slowly throughout the show, he starts showing more and more personality, such as when he's annoyed with the officiating at his daughter's soccer game.

But perhaps what he would be most noted for was his Michael Corleone from The Godfather impressions, as seen below and would become one of his character's trademark.



His loyalty to his crime family was abundantly clear when he whacked several FBI informants seen here, here, and especially here.  That's in addition to all the other murders he committed on the show.  He may have been a soft-spoken guy, but he was an absolute bad-ass, cold-blooded, brutal mobster.

But, my all time favorite scene is when he's playing poker.  As an avid gambler, I absolutely know the frustration he felt of losing money and taking that frustration out on the nearest person.

Great Moments In Springsteen Television History - Regular Show, "Guitar of Rock"

Regular Show S5 E23 - Guitar of Rock by RegularTV

I hesitate to call this a "Great Moment", since I didn't particularly enjoy this cartoon.  However, it does feature a Springsteen-esque character, therefore rightfully earning the "Great Moment" title.

The above cartoon is Regular Show, a cartoon aimed at kids that has a strong adult following.  I haven't watched an episode before, but from what I can tell it follows the zany adventures of a blue jay, a raccoon, and a gumball machine.  In this episode, we find out that the gumball machine is a fan of Bruce Rock, an aging rock-star.  The gumball machine breaks a valuable guitar signed by Mr. Rock himself, and the three amigos go on a quest to get his autograph on a replacement guitar.  What happens next?  Well, you'll just have to watch the video to find out!

Now, given that this was my first experience watching Regular Show, I don't want to judge it too harshly.  There may be character-based humor that I was missing, and this episode did satisfy fans of the show (receiving an A- grade from the AV Club).  As a 29-year-old man, I do realize that I am not the target audience.  However, there wasn't much here that would hook me to go back and watch more episodes.

The reason I tuned into this episode was to see another (hopefully) humorous take on the Boss.  I don't have a particularly high standard of Boss-related humor, either - something as simple as Brick Springhorn singing "Born To Ride" will satisfy me.  However, Bruce Rock here is only the barest bones of a Springsteen-parody.  The cartoon does hit a couple things square on the head: he's got the look, he's always on tour, and he's got a healthy dedication to his fans.  However, past that, there's not much else here besides old person jokes.  Perhaps I'm biased, but out of all the 60+ rock-stars, you'd be hard-pressed to find another as "with it" as Springsteen.  There are other things I could pick nits over (such as the look of his guitar), but overall I get the impression that they just picked a random rock-star.  The best parody, I believe, comes from passion towards the subject being mocked, and I don't quite get that feeling from this episode.

Great Moments in Springsteen Television History - Bruce Fallsteen In Jem

In continuing our thorough examination this week of Bruce Springsteen parodies in 1980s pop culture, here we see a shot from the classic Jem episode ""In Search of The Stolen Album".  I assume it is a classic, I actually haven't seen it.  However, as you can see, a musician named "Bruce Fallsteen" is number three on the charts.  In case you didn't realize, that is supposed to be Bruce Springsteen, but they changed it from "Spring" to "Fall" because fall is the opposite of spring when it comes to the seasons of the year.  If you need further help understanding the joke, please let me know in the comments section below.  

That's it for this Great Moment In Springsteen Television History.  Bruce Fallsteen does not appear anywhere else in the episode; in fact, the Great Moment is entirely captured in the screenshot above.  Was this a waste of time?  Perhaps.  But check out those other parody band names: The Moss Covered Stones!  The Roomoans!  Tom Potty!  As always, Jem is truly outrageous.

Great Moments in Springsteen Television History - The Good Wife

Any moment in television where a piece of Springsteen’s music is featured is automatically a great moment. But truth be told, the three songs featured in last Sunday’s The Good Wife were pretty disappointing moments.

Even with the understanding that the music integration was routed in a publicity stunt, you’d hope that there would at least be a semblance of artistry in the way the tunes were incorporated. But alas, there was no thematic connection or emotional resonance in this episode. Each instance was blatantly a post-production insertion with no pre-meditated thought during the writing – or even the filming – process.

For the sake of fanaticism, here’s a description of the appearances:

- Three different uses of “High Hopes” as a musical cue, the first of which was just a tease with the opening instrumentals at the beginning of the episode, the other two were just to bridge between scenes.
- Around half way through the episode, “The Ghost of Tom Joad” plays as background music in a bar. I don’t know what kind of bars will play “The Ghost of Tom Joad”, but I want to hang out at them. The music was used to underscore one character spying on another character’s text messages. Just the way Bruce envisioned it when he wrote it!
- Finally, the instrumental opening of “Hunter of Invisible Game” is used to conclude the episode as a melancholic flourish to the case’s resolution.

As for the show itself? Well, I’d never seen an episode of The Good Wife before, so I was pretty confused as to what was going on – both in terms of the court case proceedings and how the characters related to one another. At one point, one character called another character a “douche” which was pretty funny, but other than that I didn’t find much of interest in the show.

Ultimately, this was nothing more than a marketing push. Not a bad one, and I definitely appreciated the opportunity to stream the album a week early, but I wish the integration had been handled more artistically.

If, for some reason, you are still curious to see the episode, you can stream it through CBS.com: http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_good_wife/episodes/212778

Great Moments in Springsteen Television History - "No Surrender" from Glee

This past summer the TV World lost Glee stare Corey Monteith.  I'm not exactly what you would call a Glee fan, that is to say I've never seen an episode but still hate it.  However, I am saddened to hear that someone who was obviously talented die so young.  Monteith's character on the show, Finn, was honored by his fellow cast mates in the episode "The Quarterback", airing earlier this month.

As per usual with Glee, there were several musical performances throughout the episode, all paying tribute to Finn.  One of the songs was an acoustic, slowed down performance of "No Surrender" performed by the character Puck. Bruce has played stripped down acoustic versions of "No Surrender" before, most notably on the Live 1975-1985  box set.  The song takes on a whole new meaning when it's performed like this.  Much more somber than the rebellious enthusiastic electric version.

Again, I don't watch the show so I don't particularly know the significance of this character, or why he would choose this song specifically.  However, just going by content, "No Surrender" is a great choice for a song to tribute his friend.  The lyrical content of "No Surrender" has been discussed before on this blog, so I won't repeat myself.  But suffice to say, it's one of those songs that just about every Springsteen fan nods along with, and recalls their own memories to , when they hear this song.  So it's very easy to understand why this song would be the choice for the character to sing about his friend.  (Note: Rory has requested I sing "You're Missing" in my faux opera voice at his funeral.  If that song were more well known to the public, I would have suggested that instead.)