“A mild mannered accountant reveals his cross dressing secret to his therapist. Captain Cross Dresser takes the law into his own hands, falls into the face of danger but then rises as the legend is born.”

“Captain Cross Dresser” is an awesome animated comedy short that I had the pleasure of enjoying after finding a write up and link to it on Tracy’s Happy Place. Please check out the 9 minute comedy short here on crackle.com.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen crossdressing featured in an accurate and positive way within a professional work of entertainment. Generally if crossdressing is shown in TV or film, it is just made fun of. Crossdressers are usually portrayed as weird-o’s, lunatics, mentally sick serial killers (Psycho), or as a comedic disguise: A man will be forced into a crossdressing situation, and stumble through the role of trying to look and behave as a woman. This time however, the lead character is a straight, married, closeted crossdresser – a family man who leads a normal life, works a normal job, and happens to be a crossdresser as well.

What makes this cartoon so amazing is that it is very well written and acted, the animation is (broadcast TV) high end, its very humorous (had me laughing out loud), and also very true to many of the realities in a crossdresser’s life. Finally, a crossdressing lead character shown in a realistic and positive light… AND has super powers!

Since discovering this entertaining comedy short on Tracy’s Happy Place, it has also been talked about in other blogs I frequent. In that respect, I’m a bit late with my own post about it, but I felt it worthy of mention anyway.

The creators of Captain Cross Dresser are working on getting it picked up as a series. Though just another witty, lighthearted comedy on the outside, it is really much more when you look deeper into it. If a show of this quality ever made it into the living rooms of a mainstream audience on a national or even world-wide scale, it just might help crossdressers (like yours truly) find a little acceptance in society. Even though this is just a comedic cartoon, it still shines a positive and truthful light on the realities of being a crossdresser… minus the super powers part.

If you maintain a blog, please make a post about The Adventures of Captain Cross Dresser. Help get the word out. If enough people take note of this, it might have a better chance of being picked up as a series. It’s about time we had some quality entertainment that featured slick animation, clever writing, very well done humor, AND did us justice at the same time.

Some of my co-workers regularly talk about the Fox TV show “House”. Having never seen the show before, they tried to describe it to me. It’s a medical drama centered around a misanthropic, yet brilliant doctor named Gregory House. After repeated conversations about House’s off the wall treatment of people in addition to some nice eye-candy in the show (something about a woman called “Thirteen”?), I was rather curious about it.

I decided to start watching the show from season 1 on DVD rental. Mrs. H. and I have been watching about 3 or 4 episodes together each week and we’re several episodes into the first season so far.

The show itself is very formulaic. Each episode revolves around the process of diagnosing mystery illnesses and treating patients, but the real meat of it is Dr. House’s rather interesting interactions with staff and patient bedside manner… or lack there of.

Like the name implies, the show is really all about the character of House. The medical backdrop is not the show’s main focus. It’s about House doing his thing in his own very unique way. For instance, he accepts or rejects cases based on how interesting they are. It’s rather amusing to see House work out his interesting factor in some of the cases.

Dr. House is obligated to put in time at the hospital’s walk-in clinic, which he despises. Patients there are subjected to blunt, unsolicited assessments of their personal lives while he diagnosis their ailments. I can’t imagine any real life doctor’s getting away with this kind of treatment, but it’s rather entertaining to watch.

In an early episode, House is treating a woman in the clinic who has rather nice breasts. He compliments her on them and then proceeds to call a doctor friend into the exam room to just check out their greatness for himself. Although not a comedy, there are plenty of well done comedic moments like this and I often find myself laugh out loud because of them.

The acting is superb and each character holds his/her own. Actor Hugh Laurie really owns the character of House, playing the part masterfully.

I enjoy shows that aren’t afraid to be politically incorrect. There are times when this show swims in political incorrectness – something I’d like to see more shows have the courage to do.

Mrs. H. and I have about 5 seasons of the show to catch up on. We should get there by the time next season starts in the fall. I’m not sure when the much talked about character “Thirteen” comes into the mix, but I look forward to her introduction with much anticipation.

Are you a fan of the show? I don’t watch much TV and therefore don’t know about all the latest (or not so latest) shows available. I’m glad I finally discovered this show though. For a network offering, it’s really very entertaining.

Do you remember this show from the early 80′s? Quirky school teacher, Ralph Hinkley (William Katt), and down-and-out FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp), are thrust into an odd crime-fighting partnership after being approached by an alien spaceship in the desert. Ralph is given a “super suit” (aka, the “red jammies”) by the aliens and told to work together with Bill and make the world a better place. Ralph looses the suit’s instructional manual out in the desert. The result is a reluctant and unlikely super hero, complete with super hero powers… who has some serious trouble using them – especially when flying.

My wife and I just completed watching all three seasons of this show on rental DVD. It was a childhood favorite of mine. I honestly didn’t think we’d make it through more than a few episodes because of the early 80′s style TV show production quality. Believe it or not, the show held up pretty well though. Oh, it’s still very early-80′s and has a hokey style of storytelling reminiscent of that period, but it held its own and worked well for us. We both loved watching the show together and hit a few episodes each week.

I clearly remember being a kid and wishing so badly that aliens would give me a super suit! Of course, I wanted my super suit to look more like Super Girl’s (it’s a cd thing) but Ralph’s “red jammies” would have done fine as well. I just wanted to be able to fly and beat up bad guys… and turn invisible to spy on my friends. lol

Actress Connie Sellecca played “the counselor” and Ralph’s love interest in the show. I had a huge crush on her! She was a mega-hottie back in the day.

For an early 80′s TV show, it had some pretty slick special effects and production values. Not nearly as advanced as one might see today, but good for the time. Aside from the very obvious stunt man in a bad curly-hair wig here and there, most of the visuals were pretty good (for the time).

I didn’t care for the the third season that much though. Funny, I don’t remember the third season being so bad when I was a kid. It had a couple of good episodes, but most of the third and final season felt like an empty, reduced-budget, cartoony version of the show. The stories were blah, some of the regular characters were absent (mainly Ralph’s students) and the special effects were pretty bad – even by early 80′s standards. In the last season, Ralph’s flying visuals were accomplished by actor William Katt being strung up by wires in front of a giant rear-projection screen and it looked terrible. In addition, the fun of Ralph’s hap-hazard flying was missing. All of a sudden, Ralph was flying fairly well. Maybe that bad rear projection background screen helped his flying abilities somehow?

If you grew up watching this show, you might want to revisit it. If you’ve never seen it before, you may want to give it a try. It’s still a lot of fun to watch today. Consider skipping the third season though. Maybe best to remember the show when it was still in its prime in seasons 1 and 2.

I read not long ago that there’s a new Greatest American Hero movie in the works. I’m not sure if this is just a TV movie or theatrical release, but I’m curious to see what they do with it in a modern sense.

Were you a fan of the show? If you’ve never seen it before, does it sound remotely interesting? Do you ever wear red jammies (minus the cape) to bed?

If you’ve been following the show like I have, you know the deal. Detective Sam Tyler gets hit by a car in 2008 and is knocked out. He wakes up to find himself somehow stuck in 1973, working for the 125 (precinct) while trying to figure out how he ended up in the past and how to get home to 2008.

If you’ve never seen the show, it was a really cool mix of sci-fi, 70′s cop show, and detective mystery, laced with humor and loaded with style. It featured an amazing cast of actors and well written story lines. Sadly, it lasted but a single season and just ended this past Wednesday.

This often seems to happen with TV shows that I really enjoy. They either end up getting canceled way too early, or start out really great only to turn into something that I no longer care for (like LOST after season 1).

The decision to cancel Life on Mars was made before the final episodes were shot, meaning the writers could wrap up the show and resolve the mystery of why Sam ended up in 1973. This of course, was a reoccurring theme in the show – Sam trying to work out what he’s doing in 1973 and occasionally trying to explain to others that he’s from the future. I was looking forward to the series finale and finding out how and why Sam ended up in 1973. The show often hinted toward some greater purpose to his being there.

Before watching the final episode on DVR on Thursday evening (one day after it was broadcast), I decided to look up the number of episodes that were made. I thought it was about 10, but turned out to be 17 (total), according to Wikipedia. For some reason, I decided to read about the character bios on the Wikipedia write up before exiting the page. BIG mistake. Reading the bio of Sam Tyler, the show’s lead character stuck in 1973, gave away the big surprise ending. I thought I was playing it safe – skipping over all the content about the show and plot synopsis and just reading a few bios. I really hate spoilers and prefer to discover everything fresh as it plays out in the show. I don’t know what brilliant nimrod decided it was a good move to alter the bios with the “big reveal” information, but I’d like him or her banned from Wikipedia for life, please. The bio should have read something about a detective from 2008 getting stuck in 1973, NOT what was revealed in the final episode. That part should have been reserved for the plot write up. After all, that is exactly who Sam Tyler was in every episode, until the big ending.

Unfortunately, the ending was spoiled for me before watching the show. I should have known better than to look up anything before watching it. My wife was able to enjoy it without knowing anything prior. She rather enjoyed the surprise ending. It had some cool and interesting elements to it, but on the whole, I did not care for it. I can’t help but wonder if I might have enjoyed it more if I did not know what was coming.

There are some spoilers ahead so please stop reading this if you don’t like spoilers and haven’t seen the ending or haven’t seen the show at all and might like to watch it later (which it really was a great show and worth checking out). SPOILERS AHEAD

I’m really not a big fan of the whole “surprise: it was all just a dream” kind of ending. Although it was an interesting take on that particular premise, the whole single-season story was, in essence, just a dream and I didn’t care for that. The great characters and wonderfully fun 70′s style cop-show themes were nothing more than a dream-fantasy that played out in astronaut Sam Tyler’s head in 2035, while in stasis on his way to Mars. The greater meaning of why he ended up in 1973 from 2008 turned out to be nothing more than a simple computer glitch. In a “Wizard of Oz” move, it was revealed that the other characters of 1973 were in fact fellow astronauts on the ship with Sam. His tough-as-nails police boss in 1973, played masterfully by Harvey Keitel, turned out to be his father. “Windy”, the hippy chick neighbor who refers to Sam by his apartment number “2B”, turns out to be the ship’s computer. Sam was actually in stasis chamber 2B on the ship.

I really enjoyed the show and was sad to see it get canceled so soon. I was initially glad that at least the show would have an ending rather than just disappearing without any resolution to all the questions posed as it played out. The ending was a bit of a let down to me however. I would have preferred the show just stopped being produced… or better yet, continue on to a second season. How many other shows are cool enough to have a character nicknamed “No Nuts”? Looks like No Nuts won’t be serving the donuts anymore though – not when she’s been promoted to detective… or rather turns out to be just a dream character based on a fellow astronaut.

Did you enjoy the ending? Were you happy with how things were resolved and explained? Do you wish No Nuts would bring you some donuts right about now?

Last week, my wife and I went out to a local store and bought a new TV stand for our living room. I was perfectly happy with the old TV stand, but my wife had her heart set on something different and since money grows on trees…

Like most furniture purchased in a discount retail store, this baby came nicely packed in a box, which meant I’d be spending some time on my knees putting it together. I really don’t enjoy the process of assembling furniture. It would be so much nicer if they just came with a button and when you pushed it, presto – instant TV stand, fully assembled!

Yesterday afternoon, my wife helped me assembled it. I was the doctor and she was the nurse. When I would say “scalpel”, she’d hand me the screwdriver, and so on. It would have been more fun if she wore a sexy nurse’s uniform, but we forgot to pick one up while we were out. Can you believe it took about an hour and half to put this thing together? It really doesn’t look like much, but trust me – there were a lot of parts to this thing. Not as many parts as a build-it-yourself Humvee kit or anything, but more than you might think to see it all completed.

Aside from the fact that I accidentally put at least 3 chunks of this thing together incorrectly along the way (and had to take apart and re-do properly), it really wasn’t too bad. The instructions were very easy to follow, but that didn’t stop me from making some good mistakes along the way.

I think it goes well with our hardwood floor and now TV is even funner than ever to watch – oh boy!

A guy at work recommended a show called “Dollhouse” a few weeks back. Unfortunately, I missed the first couple of episodes, but remembered to set the DVR to records episodes 3 & 4. My wife and I sat down to watch episode 3 of the show last night.

The show itself is very mediocre with a slight overly dramatic presentation, repeated and unnecessary dialogue to explain every obvious point as the plot unravels, and a not so fresh sci-fi theme of special agents with programmed minds. But it also has some gorgeous leading ladies in skimpy outfits, great cinematography, convincing actors, and it’s just plain fun. There’s nothing unique or groundbreaking about this show, but I rather enjoyed it. It’s entertainment and fun… not to mention they utilize the lovely ladies in the show very nicely. A little eye-candy (or in this case, a lot) doesn’t hurt a bit.

Actress Eliza Dushku does a nice job playing the lead character “Echo”. The part almost seems made for her style of acting, or perhaps she is just made for this kind of part. I also enjoyed her in the short lived TV show “Tru Calling”. Good to see her back in a fun show with a sci-fi theme.

In the episode we watched tonight, Echo played a back up singer (and unknowing bodyguard) to a Rihanna-like pop star. She looked mighty hot in her back up singer outfit. I told my wife that I top like hers! I wouldn’t look any where near as good as she did in it, but I bet I could work it. The miniskirt she wore looked great on her, but that style would probably not work so well on me. Loved the boots too. I look mighty fine in boots like that if I do say so myself.

If you enjoy lighthearted sci-fi with good cinematography, a cool premise and some beautiful eye-candy, check this one out for yourself. It’s one of those shows you can just kind of jump in to and understand in a single episode. The unnecessary dialogue I spoke of helps with that. I guess it’s not so unnecessary after all, although it does make for some abnormal conversation. No one actually engages in dialogue like that in reality. Then again, this is just TV sci-fi fantasy and that’s how the style of storytelling works.