Noiseless Chatter Archive

I hope everyone out there is having a great Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, then I hope you’re having a great Thursday. Last night’s stream was great…I’m going to post some wrap-up thoughts on it within the next few days most likely, but I want to thank everyone who joined the chat, everyone who viewed the stream embedded here (which seemed to be a surprisingly high number…I’ll discuss that later, though), and, especially, everybody who gave to The Trevor Project. Having it on Christmas Eve prevented a lot of folks from making it out, though. My bad, and admittedly poor planning. However, the fundraising page will be open until Sunday, the 28th, so here’s a little extra: If you donate any amount at all before Sunday, I’ll send you a download link for the entire Xmas stream. All five hours of Christmas specials, music, magic, and more. Just donate and then contact me at this address and I’ll shoot you the link. No minimum or maximum donation limits, a...

We are live! At 8 Eastern, anyway. I’m posting this a bit early to give folks the chance to tune in, settle down, and log in to streamup if they wish. The stream, as you see, is embedded here, and if that’s all you want to see…GOOD FOR YOU. But if you’d like to join the chat, click here and sign up for an account! (It’s quick and free…sorry, no way around that!) Let’s party!! Please Donate to The Trevor Project: https://www.classy.org/xmasbash Join the chat: https://streamup.com/xmasbash We will be going for FIVE FULL HOURS . That’s 1am Eastern! Throughout the night you will see… Seven terrible Christmas specials spanning decades of terrible Christmas specials Vintage toy commercials interspersed throughout Holiday oddities that exist…for some reason Two original songs by Andy Starkey One original song by Adam Lore A debut episode of PortsCenter A debut episode of No Date Gamers A debut episode of The Big Bible Blastoff Holiday magic by Wes Iseli …and a hell...

As a reminder, tune in right here on Wednesday, December 24, at 8 p.m. Eastern time. That’s Christmas Eve, and I’ll be hosting the Second Annual Noiseless Chatter Xmas Bash. Just visit this page and join us. I’m still working on getting everything set up. It’s a lot of work, so I wanted to take a moment to explain why I’m doing this, and why I appreciate everyone who participates. Many of you were probably not around this time last year. I’ve gained a lot of momentum with this site in the past 12 months, and I couldn’t be happier about that. If that’s the case for you, what you missed was a night of terrible Christmas specials streamed live, with a chat room, and some host segments recorded by me. There wasn’t much to it. Everything I streamed came right from my Hulu account. Difficulties took the form of everything from echoing sound to the entire stream being taken down before its proper conclusion. And the host segments were off the cuff and probably boring as...

  ALF Reviews: Character Spotlight – Brian Tanner At the end of season one, I decided to do a character spotlight on Kate Tanner. It was an extremely easy decision, as Kate was the only Tanner with any character to spotlight. At the end of season two, the decision to spotlight Brian is just as easy, but for the opposite reason: he’s the only one still  without  character. I alluded to this — vaguely — in my overall review of season two a couple of weeks ago. The three best episodes were all built around exploring one of the Tanners: “Working My Way Back to You” – Kate “Oh, Pretty Woman” – Lynn “Night Train” – Willie Notably absent is a similar episode about Brian. And I don’t mean absent from my list of favorites; I mean that one doesn’t actually exist. The show’s relationship with Brian is an odd one. I knew that, but just  how  odd it was didn’t register with me until I was looking for screengrabs to use in this article. Unlike the other Tanners, Brian almost ...

Well hello! Season’s greetings from me, the guy who isn’t dead, I promise! It’s Christmastime, which, as always, is a busy time for me. I didn’t expect it to take a toll on the site here, but a quick glance at my folder of half-finished drafts (including the season two bonus stuff for ALF ) makes it pretty clear to me that it has. I don’t intend to stop posting until the end of the year, but updates are coming slowly. Work’s been busy, I’ve got a few other creative irons in the fire that I can’t say much about yet, and…y’know…all that DAMNED CHRISTMAS STUFF TO DO. There’s one thing in particular that I really want to get written and posted because it was requested on my Facebook page by a few people. (Speaking of which, are you following the Noiseless Chatter Facebook page ? If you don’t…do!) But the one thing I’ve been working on most is…drumroll please… The 2nd Annual Noiseless Chatter Xmas Stream! Yeah, a four-hour programming block isn’t as easy as it sounds to ...

Longstanding readers and longreading bystanders know Christmas Eve ’round these parts is a time to gather, watch terrible TV specials, and share jokes about Lassie getting hit by a car. And this year, it’s no different. However, this year it’s different! The event will actually double as a kind of telethon benefiting The Trevor Project , a counseling / suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth. The holiday season, as you well know, is an extremely difficult time for many, and I tried hard to figure out some way that I could turn this event into something that might help those who suffer from depression and other mental health issues. It’s been a hard year. I think that’s fair to say. For that reason alone I’m glad to have the ability to set up a humorous event like this and keep spirits light, but if you find it in your heart to contribute during the event, I know many, many people who need it will feel the direct effect of that generosity. Okay, now that I’ve mad...

  ALF Reviews: Season Two, Reviewed And, somehow feeling as though it went both way too fast and way too slow, season two is behind us. This puts us at the midpoint of the project, with season three’s 25 episodes, season four’s 24, and the Criterion Collection director’s cut release of  Project: ALF  still to come. And…I’ll talk about the season itself shortly. For now, a few general reflections on the project itself. The value that this series has had to me as a writer is immense. I have no idea what any of you get out of it as readers, and for that I almost feel guilty. When I first chose  ALF  to cover, it was because of a few things. One: well, you voted for it. But even if you hadn’t, I probably would have covered it at some point, because two: it’s a show I remember liking as a kid that seems positively insane as of now. The idea of a prime-time puppet show on American network television seems like a truly foreign idea, but it wasn’t. It happened. And, in ...