Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Walker's Back

This is topic Walker's Back in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 10-15-2005, 10:52 AM:

Sunday Night 9PM CBS Walker Texas Ranger will return to your television set. First time in five years. I think that all film-tech members should arrange to have Sunday night off so you can stay home and watch the show. Make yourselves a pitcher of Beefeater Gin Gibson's, settle back and enjoy the show.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 10-15-2005, 11:42 AM:

Bob are you going to play his sidekick for this season?

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 10-15-2005, 11:49 AM:

I actually used to like that show.
Go Chuck!

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 10-15-2005, 12:07 PM:

Bill, Since I am older than he is, he doesn't want me to show him up. So I just promote him now because his shows are the best. [Big Grin]

Ask anyone from Texas.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-15-2005, 04:32 PM:

Is it in HDTV? I don't watch anything that is not in HDTV. And Dolby 5.1.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-15-2005, 04:44 PM:

I don't watch anything on video. Furthermore I don't watch CRAP programming with LOUSY actors, and I'm from Texas. [Razz]

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-15-2005, 09:42 PM:

I get all the Walker Texas Ranger I want catching Conan O'Brian late night on NBC. [Razz]

Posted by Andy Summers (Member # 3207) on 10-15-2005, 09:54 PM:

Paul’

Maybe you should try “Late Night Lisa” on “Classic FM” foxy girl she is… http://www.classicfm.com/index.cfm?nodeId=35&sw=1024

Is "Walker" on the "NASA" television channel has that is the only channel I can pick up…LOL [Cool]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-15-2005, 09:55 PM:

Really isn't this the sort of important announcement that we should have read first on Joe Kleiman's site [Big Grin]

?

Mark

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-16-2005, 08:55 AM:

Having grown up with those educational Hanna Barbera cartoons, I already know that Texas, and the surrounding areas are dead flat, with cactus everywhere, along with tumbleweed rolling around all over the place.

I dont know if I can stomach Walker again.

Is the new show actually originated on FILM?

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 10-16-2005, 01:09 PM:

The New York Newspapers have given the new film Four Stars. I was getting all set to watch tonight at 9PM when my darling wife informed me we have to attend a black tie Dinner at the Waldorf tonight. Damn, Damn, Damn.

Brad you are such a kidder...I know you will sneak a peek at the film tonight.

Bruce, you might regret it so you might as well watch.

Joe: Is it in HDTV? And Dolby 5.1. Yes, Joe it has whatever you want.

Bill you are not at the 5th floor screening room tonight. Tin Pan Alley is closed so I know you will be watching.

Dominic I like your attitude.

Paul what took you so long to tell me about Conan? Must be due to the high flights you have been on. I know you'll be watching.

Andy: check out www.cbstv.com at 3AM your time.

Mark: Indeed it should be on, Joe Kleiman's site [Big Grin]

I will watch for your reviews tonight. [Smile]

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-16-2005, 05:56 PM:

True, true.

I'll give it a look.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-16-2005, 06:37 PM:

If it is CBS it probably will be HDTV 5.1 Dolby Digital EX. You'll be able to count the whiskers on Chuck Norris' beautiful face. That is if these are new shows and not reruns. Either way I'm not watching it!

Posted by John H. Crawford (Member # 3086) on 10-17-2005, 09:24 AM:

I watched it, but the ending had me stumped. Was it just a fainting spell or did Alex actually get shot? [Roll Eyes]

The way it was all played out she looked like she was in the clear.

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 10-17-2005, 10:41 AM:

In cruising the dial (Ok so its not really a dial any more), I happend to pass by that god-awful mess that Chucky is in. It was infact HD with 5.1. If I remember correctly, it was on UPN. It did not appear to originate on film, but the picture quality was acutally pretty decent.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-17-2005, 12:55 PM:

Our UPN affiliate does not have HD or even DTV yet. They suck. So if I want to wath it in HD, I'd have to download the episode and watch it through my Xbox. I have to do this with each episode of Everybody Hates Chris, a show I actually watch but never when it is broadcast. I always wait a few days when the HD version becomes available to download.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 10-17-2005, 01:59 PM:

Well, Well, Well I thought most of the show was ok, but I hated the ending.

What, was up with that?????

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 01-06-2006, 11:19 PM:

Just to keep the flames of adulation burning, I present this article which appeared in today's LA Times: [Smile]

quote:
January 6, 2006

STYLE & CULTURE
The Man, the Myriad Myths

How did Chuck Norris become such a force to be reckoned with? Websites focus on his fear factor with fans.

'Missing In Action'? Don't bet on it!
By Paul Farhi, Washington Post

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Chuck Norris frequently donates blood to the Red Cross. Just not his own.

Chuck Norris does not fade away. By all rights he should have, by now. "Walker, Texas Ranger," his butt-kicking law-and-order TV series, finished its run on CBS in May 2001, after eight years and 203 episodes. And that should have been that for the great Stoneface, outside of the endless cable reruns, the Total Gym infomercials and the occasional late-night rebroadcast of one of his '80s-era chop-socky movies ("Lone Wolf McQuade," "Missing in Action," etc.).

But Chuck Norris, or maybe just Chuck Mania, endures.

The 65-year-old martial-arts master is the object of a kind of sardonic cult veneration. Conan O'Brien, on his late-night show, has been airing vintage "Walker" clips for months. Collegehumor.com, a website popular among the dorm set, regularly links to all things Norris on the Internet (recent entry: a rare photo of Norris sans beard). Norris popped up in a cameo in "Dodgeball" two summers ago and in a two-hour "Walker" movie in October, which drew respectable ratings.

Most intriguing, and certainly most amusing, has been the spread of Chuck Norris "facts," a series of Paul Bunyanesque exaggerations riffing on (and amplifying) the Legend of Chuck. Such as:

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Wilt Chamberlain claims to have slept with more than 20,000 women in his lifetime. Chuck Norris calls this "a slow Tuesday."

Why does Norris (once described by a critic as the stiffest guy on TV since Ed Sullivan) rate this sort of exaltation, this David Hasselhoff-ization? Why not fellow aging B-pic martial-arts action stars such as Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme? Why not cartoonish wrestler-actors like the Rock or Hulk Hogan? Why not other men-of-frozen-facial-features such as Charles Bronson or Steve McQueen (a former Norris martial-arts student)?

Why not that MacGyver guy?

Why, in short, a guy who never uttered more than three consecutive lines of dialogue and tended to solve contentious military and law enforcement issues by, um, kicking people in the head?

Chuck Norris does not go hunting because "hunting" implies a chance of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.

Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.

While hardly an unbiased source, Jeff Duclos, who has been Norris' publicist since the last season of "Walker," chalks up Chuck Mania to Norris' "consistent persona."

"There are very few people who have projected that kind of image, that kind of mythical heroism," he says. "People, especially young men, appreciate the underlying principles of that character, the morality, the dignity, the sense of right and wrong."

While Norris has never challenged Sir Laurence Olivier for acting nuance, he certainly has been consistent during his more than 30-year movie and TV career. Through scores of "Walker" episodes and nearly two dozen movies, he played pretty much the same guy. As the square-jawed embodiment of law and order, he could be counted on to do What Was Right, even if right involved beating up people, which, in Norris' case, it invariably did.

"Walker," which drew almost 20 million viewers at its peak, was predictable, simple and (as Conan's clips demonstrate) often unintentionally funny. To call "Walker" retro is to insult retro. Although it was in the tradition of "Gunsmoke" and John Wayne westerns, it existed in its own space-time continuum. As latter-day Texas Ranger Cordell Walker, Norris and his sidekicks were the white hats out to rid the West (or at least Dallas) of drug-dealin', kidnappin', gun-runnin', no-good scum. Every week, justice prevailed. And it prevailed with great guest stars, including Frank Stallone, Joan Jett, Erik Estrada, Ann Jillian, Tom Bosley and Barbara Mandrell.

There was a certain integrity to the series. To his credit, Norris, who was executive producer of the show, never tried to do a Very Special Episode (OK, the one about him and Alex registering for their wedding was an exception). "Walker" never did subtlety, or ambiguity, or irony. (In fact, Chuck Norris can bend irony into balloon-animal shapes.)

Another possible explanation for Norris adulation is a demographic one: Young adults, who grew up watching "Walker" on Saturday nights, are reliving a fond bit of their childhood, just as earlier generations elevated "The Brady Bunch" and "The Dukes of Hazzard" to iconic camp status. In any case, young people seem to be the driving force behind Norris nostalgia. The most frequent visitors to the Chuck Norris Fact Generator — www.4q.cc/chuck/ — a daily offering of Chuck "facts," are college students and military personnel, according to Ian Spector, the site's co-founder.

Spector, 17, a Brown University freshman from Long Island, started a "fact" site for the actor Vin Diesel in April and joined forces with another Web designer, Mike Lelli, to launch the Norris site a month later. After some slow going, things have picked up: The Norris generator got 18 million of its 28.7 million hits in the past month, Spector reports. He has now collected some 8,000 Norris "facts" from visitors and plans to produce a book and a calendar.

Why the passion for Chuck? Spector has a few thoughts: "I guess he's well enough known that people know what he's done," he says. "And he's been out of the culture long enough so that people can go wherever they want with the 'facts.' Beyond that, it's really hard to say."

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

Norris was on vacation with his family and unavailable for comment, according to Duclos. The publicist adds, however, that Norris doesn't mind making a little fun of his persona. In addition to the "Dodgeball" cameo, he appeared on O'Brien's show last year, in a humorous skit in which Norris/Walker stops O'Brien from showing another "Walker" clip by shooting his hand away from a clip-generating lever. The two men then mock-argue and engage in a carefully choreographed martial-arts fight.

"He's a good sport," Duclos says. "He's a serious guy, but I don't think he takes himself too seriously."

As for the Internet "facts," Norris hasn't seen those yet, says Duclos.

Probably just as well. You wouldn't want to upset Chuck Norris.

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-06-2006, 11:57 PM:

LAME!!!

What those people don't understand is that the young people visiting those sites are LAUGHING at him.

I challenge Chuckey to come try and kick my ass. [Moon]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 01-07-2006, 03:22 PM:

Oh come on Grand-Poopie-BAH! Mark the spot! You're ALL ass! [Razz]

Posted by Floyd Justin Newton (Member # 1316) on 01-07-2006, 05:35 PM:

Uh-oh...Thems fightin' words! [Eek!]

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 01-08-2006, 10:20 AM:

Word has it that Walker is heading down to Texas and will be looking for "The Grand Pooh-BAH". I have sent him a note that if he indeed were to hurt the "Grand Pooh-BAH" he will have to deal with Phil. [Wink]

Posted by Andrew Lee (Member # 1330) on 01-09-2006, 12:49 PM:

Apologies if this or something like this link has been posted before. I'm sure Bob has seen this but I couldn't resist.

Chuck Norris Facts

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 01-09-2006, 02:41 PM:

Everything Andrew say's is true. So don't mess with Andrew or Cordell will pay you a visit.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 01-09-2006, 02:50 PM:

Oh c'mon Bob! Cordell's a pussy!

The medics have to put his O2 mask on between takes of his body-building commercials.

I'm sure Brad and me are both shivering in our boots waiting in an-tissa------pa-tion for his pussy-ass to show up!

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 01-09-2006, 03:24 PM:

Phil...

May you rest in Peace.

Amen.

Have a Martini you won't feel the pain.

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 01-25-2006, 01:44 PM:

Chuck Norris Dead At 65!!!!!

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Chuck Norris passed away today from a massive heart attack.

Chuck Norris, at the age of 65, passed away from a massive heart attack. He was at his home working out on his Total Gym, having sex with his wife, fighting three ninjas, and playing with his kids when he suddenly complained that a train was running over his heart. The autopsy shows that Chuck Norris did not have a heart, nor was he even human.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 01-25-2006, 01:48 PM:

That's impossible, he promised to call me Friday.