No man is a number

One of our favorite shows was an old 60s British series called The Prisoner. "Favorite" may be not the correct word, as the series could be frustrating and sometimes downright confusing, but always intriguing and made you want to see what happens next. It is one of the tv series that influenced "Lost."

The series is centered on a man known only as "Number 6." He is a spy who suddenly decides to resign and is subsequently drugged and kidnapped. He wakes up in a mysterious town known as The Village, which is controlled by some sort of organization bent on discovering why Number 6 resigned. Are his kidnappers his ex-employers or the enemy? The Village is also populated by other Prisoners, who also have numbers assigned to them. All of these people want to escape this Village, but escape seems impossible, as no one can figure out where on Earth the Village is and there are mysterious things preventing their escape, like a mysterious white balloon (Lost Black Smoke Monster, anyone?). And everyone is suspect, as people constantly betray each other for the chance to be allowed to escape. The person in charge of the Village is Number 2 who claims to answer to a Number 1, who we are never shown and sometimes doubt exists (Lost Jacob and Ben).

Anyway, it's a very 60s series with psychedelic imagery. It's not for everyone, but it's worth a try.

The reason I wrote this post is that I found out the star and creator of the series, Patrick McGoohan, just passed away this week. I was hoping he would be alive for the new Prisoner mini-series, which will tentatively air in the fall on AMC.

Here are the extraordinarily long (by today's standards at least) opening credits:

Be seeing you!

Michael Scott-san

The Office is one of our favorite shows. Here is the never-before-seen Japanese version that inspired it--warning: you have to know the show to get this clip, otherwise it makes no sense:

Trust Me - I'm in Advertising

TRUST ME is a new cable show staring Eric McCormack ( Will & Grace ) and Tom Cavanagh ( Ed ) return to series television in TNT's TRUST ME , a sharp, witty drama series that centers on two best friends working as creative partners at a top-ranked Chicago ad agency. It will be on this Monday, Jan 19 on TNT primetime.

I am so psyched to see this. I worked for an ad agency for over five years and I miss the excitement of the creative development, quirky graphic designers and art directors (I'm married to one), and yes believe it or not, the clients!

David and I have been catching up on Mad Men on Netflix.

I am simply Mad about Jon Hamm who plays Don Draper and I'm sure David's got the hots for January (no-D.), Christina (you'd think, but no-D.), or Peyton (didn't even remember her, but thanks for reminding me honey-D.). We're also watching reruns of Bewitched on KOCE. I think Darren Stephens is responsible for getting me into the ad business.

Perks of Flying First Class

About half of my family works or has worked for an airline or some other airport-related job, including yours truly. These jobs come with occasional perks. My cousin Eric, who works for Continental in Oahu, was recently flying back from the mainland to Hawaii and was lucky enough to get seated in first class. In Eric's words, here's what happened:

I recently was fortunate enough to fly First Class from LAX-HNL on the BEST airline in the world Continental. Seated next to me was Terry O'Quinn aka John Locke from the television show LOST that airs on ABC. I'm not a big fan of the show, but Maureen (Eric's wife) is. So I thought Maureen would appreciate a picture of her leading man, me not the actor. He was gracious enough to talk to me and take a picture with me after the flight landed. He's a nice guy and maybe when the new season starts I might just start watching.



How cool is that. Armilyn and I are big LOST fans, but she said she would get a little freaked out sitting next one of the actors on a plane--you have to know the show in order to understand the reason.

post by David

On the Road Again, Spanish style

A new PBS series I had heard about finally debuted--Spain, On the Road Again documents a road trip by Gwyneth Paltrow, Mario Batali, Claudia Bassols, and Mark Bittman around Spain, sampling its culinary delights. Makes me want to go visit Justine and Fernando in Spain.



The first episode is free for download via iTunes the week of September 30 to October 6, 2008.

post by David