Those of us who grew up in the 70's took a number of hits this past week. I already mentioned Peter Benchley, but I was remiss in not mentioning the passing of one of the icons of 70's cinema. Phil Brown died of pneumonia on February 9th. Many people may not recognize the name (even those of you weaned on 70's flicks.) But you'll remember the character and the film. Phil Brown was Uncle Owen in the original "Star Wars." This movie became such a huge part of my life at 10 years old that any character, no matter how insignificant, was scarred into my psyche. Right now I'm looking at plastic effigies of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2, Threepio, a Stormtrooper and Greedo. And that's just from the first movie. No, maybe Uncle Owen was not worthy of a plastic figurine (atleast not at my house,) but that doesn't mean he wasn't just as important to the success of the film as say, Han Solo or Luke Skywalker. Who could forget Uncle Owen getting all cheesed off when that lazy Luke wanted to run off and join the alliance before the harvest, or when he got the better of those cheatin', thievin' Jawas by swapping up that crappy R4 unit for our beloved R2? Oh, and of course, the whole story pivots on the scene in which he bitch-slaps that back-talking Aunt Beru when she insinuates that she might want to go down to Mos Eisley for a few drinks with the girls. The whole film swings on the actions of Uncle Owen. Think about it.

And, for a final shot in the groin to the seventies generation, Franklin Cover, the jive-talking honky who had the gall to marry Lenny Kravitz's dead, black mother, died at the ripe old age of 77. That's right. Tom Willis of "The Jeffersons" died on February 10th, completing the 70's death triumvirate. Cover, another guy whose name might have escaped you, also appeared in "All in the Family," "Who's the Boss," and "The Stepford Wives."

Daytona gets running this weekend and NASCAR is on, my brother. Rednecks everywhere have already got a 30 pack of brew on ice, a couple packs of smokes, and the radio set up to broadcast all over the property, so no matter where you may have to roam, you can still hear the race. I'm no redneck, by any stretch, but I love 'em, and I'm ready for this pig. Especially with no hockey and nothing else to watch but the Olympics. From what I understand, "American Idol," "Survivor," "Dancing with the Retarded Stars," and C-Span's coverage of a "Save the Spotted Prairie Dog" rally somewhere in the Arizona desert have been throttling the Olympics in the ratings.

Winter weather has finally returned to Western New York. In other words, here come the pain. Right now the temp is hovering somewhere just below 10 degrees, and I don't even want to get started on the wind chill. It's snot-freezin' cold out there, kids, just as it should be this time of year.

In new movie news (at least new to me,) the good folks at Netflix just sent me "Skeleton Key," which was a sweet little thriller about the attractive offspring of a movie star and some guy who used to be in a jokey, lame rock band back before electricity, who gets a job in a big, creepy southern mansion taking care of the Elephant Man. Voodoo ensues. There's a lot of cool creaking doors, thunderstorms, scratchy blues music and all around scary goings-on in this flick. Recommended. I read a user review on the Netflix website by some idiot who said that he figured out the ending 15 minutes into the flick. I find this hard to believe. But then again, I didn't see the end of "The Passion of the Christ" coming either.

Since I wrote about "Dancing with the Celebrity Nitwits" in a not-so-complimentary way, I've had people asking me if I was a TV snob; you know, one of these idiots who say stupid crap like, "I only watch PBS, CNN and the Discovery Channel. Television is drivel." I want to clear this up right now. I am NOT one of those pompous scumbags. I watch a lot of TV. I watch sports: baseball, football, hockey, basketball, NASCAR, golf, just about everything except the Olympics and soccer. I watch the Sci-Fi channel: the most insipid bullstuff you will ever run across outside the Lifetime channel airs on Si-Fi. Sci-Fi is the Lifetime Movie Channel for geeks. I watch insipid original programming, idiotic and painfully bad original creature features that actually have the gall to call themselves things like "Boa vs. Python" and "Spring Break Shark Attack," and even, God help me, a reality show in which a bunch of idiots tried to live in a house with a witch, a vampire, a guy who hung from the ceiling from his nipple rings, a nude weirdo and a voodoo priestess. I watch movies. Lots of 'em. Ask anybody. So I hope I have dispelled any notions that I am a TV snob. So, to drive that point home, I was trying to come up with ten TV shows I actually watch that are still on the air (don't look for the word "Dancing" in any of the titles.)
Here we go:

1. The Shield- When I started watching this thing I never would have guessed that bad ass Vic Mackie was the Commish. The most riveting hour of television you will see.
2. The Sopranos- Feels like a feature movie every week. HBO does it right.
3. Deadwood- HBO strikes again. Terrific acting, writing and direction. Feels like Shakespeare in the old west. With profanity.
   
4. 24- I look forward to this show as much as I dread it. I thought I would love last season most of all because of the absence of uber-annoying daughter Kim, who could find trouble and abduction at Sunday mass. And yet there was something missing. We'll see how this season goes.
5. Nip/Tuck- Gross. Not one character on this show is worth the powder to blow them to h-e-double hockeysticks. My wife loves this show. It's "Melrose Place" without the scruples.
6. Lost- Very much into this one. We need more of that whooley mammoth or whatever the hell it is though.
   
7. Invasion- I hope this show makes it. Judging by how much I'm enjoying it, I doubt it will. You gotta love a body-snatching alien story. Keep it coming, ABC!
8. Alias- I am watching this show under protest, and am loathe to even include it on this list because of the B-Fleck factor. I would have given up on this if the characters weren't so good and this was not the last season. But, it's still fast-paced and the new additions have not subtracted. Still a top ten show.

All right, I said it was a top ten list, but I could only come up with 8. If I think of any more, I'll post them ASAP. Viva Television!!