Worst Holiday Specials Ever

Some of the worst holiday specials ever:

Al Gore's Inconvenient Christmas (2005). The former Vice President moderates yet another battle between Snow Miser and Heat Miser and teaches the kids important lessons in climate change. Included are revelatons that Mr. Heat Miser is on the Exxon/Mobil payroll, and that Mr. Snow Miser is still using environmentally-incorrect freon for keeping his lair chilly.

Rush Limbaugh's Christmas Tea Party (2009). It turns out that guest Glenn Beck really can't croon "White Christmas", but gets pretty effective when he bursts into tears at the end of it. Sarah Palin provides the Christmas Moose feast. Takes place at Sarah's house in Alaska, which you can see the North Pole from.

Joe Camel's Smokin' Christmas! (1988) The rarely-glimpsed children's cartoon characters were seen here, including ol Joe himself, along with his friends the Puffapotamus, Bobby the BUTTerfly (who taught kids to properly dispose of cigarette butts and not litter!) and Joe Junior.

Star Wars Holiday Special - Special Edition (2003). It seems that George Lucas eventually re-does just about everything he does, including his legendarily bad "Star Wars Holiday Special" from 1978. As he usually does, he adds a lot more CGI and adds in a few explosions with trendy white shock-wave rings. He thought he could improve this one by digitally inserting Jar Jar Binks throughout the show, even including the "makes your ears bleed" song "Meesa Happy Holiday". The Boba Fett cartoon, the only part of the 1978 show that anyone liked, is removed to make way for the Jar Jar material. After all, you can't have a character that people actually like in it, can you?

If you wonder why Lucas' "Howard the Duck's Holiday Quackup" (1987) is not included in this list, it is because no copies are known to survive after the riots and arson and other destruction triggered by its theatrical premiere. It's just too dangerously bad.

Billy Mays Oxyholiday (2007). The pitchman makes his case that Christmas is the messiest holiday of all, and what better to take care of it than with Oxyclean. Guest host Mimi Umidon. He sings Christmas songs such as "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow". Only ever seen around 3:00 AM on upper cable channels sandwiched between two-hour-long Guthy-Renker sports equipment commercials. Has a special guest appearance by Jessica Simpson, the Queen of Infomercial Acne.

"Twilight" Christmas (2009). Because nothing says Christmas like vampires and werewolves, right? Bella convinces Jacob and Edward to team up to save Santa from a Volturi vendetta. Songs include "Werewolves of Christmas" sung by the Wolf Pack, and Robert Pattinson even gets to croon "Vampires Down the Chimney".

Battlestar Galactica Christmas Special (1981). While George Lucas wants everyone to forget about the "Star Wars Holiday Special", Glen A Larson wants everyone to forget about this holiday turkey, in which Rudolph leads the ragtag fleet past a Cylon trap. And they do end up using Lucifer's tiny blinky head as a Christmas tree ornament. "Bah, your command!"

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If you want to see more, visit this page: The 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials

Thanksgiving with the Vaders

Black Friday

I did make it out for sales Friday morning. I could not believe that the line for the sale at Kohl's at 4:00 AM was about 3 blocks long. Like, who goes to Kohl's? But I decided to that morning, as did a lot of others.

At Walmart, I found several items, but when faced with a 2-hour wait to buy them, I put them on the shelf and left. Think of how much more money they would make if they made it easy to pay them! But a lot of other stores have this problem too, year round, in a lesser way. You know, the situation where there are 15 registers, and only one is open and it has a very long line. You'd think that retail stores would put a priority on actually getting the money, but they don't. Over the years I'd had several situations where I've put stuff back on the shelf and walked out because the store was badly managed to the extent of having huge lines at one or two registers, and a huge row of closed registers.

Today, I decided to get a few photos of how the town is decorating itself for Christmas. First, is the Halloween billboard. Still up, almost one month after the Halloween Superstores have closed. I don't think that's the wisest use of advertising dollars, do you?

I see that the Christmas store "Holiday Traditions" has decorated itself for Christmas. Oh wait, they decorate themselves like that all year round.
I guess the economy isn't all that bad, even in Michigan, if a dog bakery can thrive. Just keep the male dogs away from the Christmas trees in the window.
I haven't been to Amical in years. It bills itself as a fine bistro. Next door, the State Theatre is showing several Christmas movies this season. Recently they showed "Elf", but I was not interested. I'm none too pleased with Will Ferrell after the damage he did to "Land of the Lost".
Across the street, there is a chocolate bar that has decorated for Christmas. Yes, a chocolate bar. I wonder if they have chocolate bars at the chocolate bar?

The Real Iron Man

I know Halloween is over, but I could not help post this one I just ran across. Ingenious costume.


It fits well with the many Iron Man theme songs (one example below):

"Iron Man, Iron Man
Can do anything an iron can
Presses shirts, socks and ties
Leaves a burn mark where he lies
Oh yeah
Here comes Iron Man!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

And what is Thanksgiving without a Thanksgiving pageant? Below is a video clip from "Addams Family Values", starring Christine Baranski and others.

Twilight "New Moon" Movie

Last Friday (in the earliest moments of the morning just after midnight), I joined the crowd for the midnight movie showing of "Twilight: New Moon" along with a couple of people closer to the film's intended target audience. I like the books and the first movie, but am not any kind of "Twihard", and can't imagine being one. I did not have a "Team Edward", "Team Jacob", or even "Team Esme" shirt, and I passed up the Twilight souvenir sale table set up outside the theatre. I'd never seen a souvenir sale table set up outside of a movie theatre. Not even at the numerous Star Trek and Star Wars premieres I've been to. Hint: Trekkies and Star Wars geeks, set one of those up at the next premiere.

The crowd was vast: filling a large proportion of the mall parking lot, and all 9 screens of the multiplex.

The web site for the theatre insisted that the movie started at 12:01 AM Thursday morning. They insisted that they did this because the software did not let them do otherwise. Regardless, it's pretty bad of the company to intentionally list the movie as starting on the wrong day. I would not be surprised if, as a result, there were half a dozen Twihards waiting forlonrly at 12:01 Thursday morning in front of the locked doors.

One reviewer said of it "It's a totally nonsensical, flat-lined chick flick that is infinitely worse than even that all-time stupid travesty "Serendipity". Well, I almost never see chick flicks, so a chick flick is more of a novelty to me. I just don't know chick flicks, having not seen any of the movies on this top 10 list of them. Not even "When Harry Met Sally", so I can't run this movie down in comparison to them.

I liked the Volturi sections. They take place in the Italian city of Volterra, which I just now learned is a real place as I wrote this. I've always liked the Volturi, because in several ways, including physical depiction and manner, they are like something right out of the Anne Rice vampire novels. Now I am curious where it was filmed, as I like visiting Italian cities, and seeing them in films also.

Taylor Lautner, whose parents are from Traverse City, MI (and I probably went to high school with one or more of his relatives) did better than I expected he would. When he turned serious (as opposed to being a giddy kid), he came off fairly believable. I guess he's not totally worthless as an actor. Robert Pattinson seemed to be sleepwalking through his role, and muttered his lines way too much. Kristen Stewart, as usually, had this drawn look to her face like she was fighting off a headache. This all is similar to the books, where of the three, Jacob is far more believable and human, despite his wolf-related temper problems.

Billy Burke (Charlie the cop) was in character and provided some comic relief, but he was more serious this time (as perhaps befits the material of what was going on with his daughter). But the laughs he caused in "Twilight" were pretty much missing. Graham Greene is like the Kevin Bacon of Native American-related movies. He's been in so many of them. His presence seens wasted in this one, and dies early (becoming bacon for a vampire), making me think of Ernest Borgnine's quickly-over role in "Lost Treasure of Sawtooth Island" .The soundtrack for "New Moon" wasn't nearly as good as the one for the previous movie. I liked a lot of the music for the previous movie, and like with many movies where little attention seems to be paid to the music, I can't remember a single note of the "New Moon" soundtrack.

The worst bit in the movie was a scene toward the end that was a "future vision" of Edward and Bella, happily ever after, both as vampires. They were skipping in slo-mo happily through the verdant forest, like something from a feminine hygeine products commercial. This scene did not work: everyone in the theatre laughed loudly. The earlier scenes of a future very old Bella with a still-young Edward worked better.

The vast crowd made it a quite enjoyable experience, especially the laughter at the intentional, and unintentional funny parts.

My ranking for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is two and one-half (2.5) Eberts, a ranking I use for movies that are "OK to watch once, and maybe again years later. Enough to make it worth watching to the end". I enjoyed the experience more than this ranking indicates, due to the fun of seeing the movie with a large and raucous crowd.

Saturday Scavenger Hunt - Cars

Today's Saturday Scavenger Hunt word is "Cars"

Here are some of the unusual cars I got photos of this summer.

Hot Dog! It's the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. I did a blog post on this earlier in the year.
At another car show, this one put on by NM3, I got some pictures of a Soviet LADA Car. It represented the pinnacle of fine Communist-era craftsmanship, luxury, and quality.
And at the Buckley Old Engine Show, a Bevery Hillbillies are showed up. This car is in the show every year.
I thought of adding music videos for Gary Numan's "In Cars", or something from Ric Ocasek's band "The Cars", but I see that Laura B has already touched on that. That's fine, since I'm not a fan of "The Cars" band, anyway.

So here is a video clip of Toonces, the cat who can drive a car:

The future of bookstores.

Please visit this post at Books in Northport. Interesting points about buying local....

Old Kzin Art

Back in 1978, a new science fiction magazine debuted. It was called Galileo, and it did not last long. A feature of the early issues was a four-issueserialization of the first sequel to Larry Niven's now-classic "Ringworld". The sequel was called "Ringworld Engineers".

To the above left is a scene showing a couple of Kzin warriors (artist Cortney Skinner). The story featured the Kzinti (plural of Kzin), a race of ferocious carnivorous cat-like aliens. I've read somewhere that the Kzinti were an inspiration for the remaking of Star Trek's Klingons after the old series. Like the Klingons, the Kzinti are warriors first and foremost, and extremely bound by martial honor.

I've enjoyed the Ringworld series, and also the many volume related series called "Man-Kzin Wars", so I figured I'd dig out some of the artwork from the long since defunct "Galileo" magazine.

Below is the back cover of one of the issues. It is by Cortney Skinner, and figures a typical scene of the surface of Ringworld.


To the left is one of the illustrations, by Alex Stevens. It shows the main Kzin character, Chmeee, standing next to the human hero of the book, Louis Wu. To the right is a character portrait of Chmeee, as drawn by Larry Blamire.

"A Year in Mooring" Movie Filming in Traverse City

I went downtown (Traverse City, Michigan) this morning, and as I turned into the main street, I saw it was blocked off. My first thought was, "What is Michael Moore doing now?", because I remembered he did an armored car stunt related to his movie "Capitalism: A Love Story". But then I remembered that they are supposed to be filming a new movie "A Year in Mooring" around town. That is what it turned out to be. So, I decided to get some pictures of the film crew at work.

Below is a video clip of them filming a woman in a car:


The movie is directed by Chris Eyre, who has directed "Law and Order", "We Shall Remain", and has been involved in other projects such as "Smoke Signals". Many of his projects are related to Native American subjects. I am not sure if I got Chris Eyre in any of the photos I took, but perhaps he is the one in the green jacket below sitting in a director's chair. After all, shouldn't directors sit in director's chairs? In any case, you can see a picture of Eyre to the left, as he appeared on the cover of"Native Peoples" magazine.

The movie stars Josh Lucas. The last thing I saw Lucas in was "Glory Road", which was directed by a local director. However, this project seems entirely unrelated. Lucas was around somewhere, but I didn't see him.


The movie is to be filmed entirely locally. This article describes more about it. The movie is supposed to be released in 2011.


One of the scenes involves a near-accident on the corner of Cass and Front Street. I was told by one of the crew that they would be working on this scene all day.

Postcard Friendship Friday: Into the Storm

Welcome to another "Postcard Friendship Friday". In today's entry, I will use an Edmund Fitzgerald postcard I used in a post a couple of months ago. Instead of being a photo, it is of a painting. It is a modern-era postcard sold commonly in stores. The anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Nov 10, 1975 was just a few days ago. The postcard painting must be of a time shortly before the waves in the "Gales of November" overcame the boat.

It happens that I am also reading the book "The Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger. Many will remember the movie with George Clooney. Mark Walhberg was also in it, as was William Fichtner, who achieved fame later as the relentless FBI agent in the "Prison Break" TV show.

In the part of the book I am in now, the fishing boat Andrea Gail is just about to set out, and many of the fishermen, wives, and girlfriends have had strong premonitions premonitions that the expedition will go bad. One of the crew members has already backed out of the expedition entirely.

As the Andrea Gale is about to set out in the book, I am reminded of lyrics from an old Peter Gabriel song:

"They shout and then we leave the harbour.
In doubt, they're acting weird.
And the sea is whipping up a welcome
If hell come we're all easy prey,
Trying to find a way
to make it alive,,,'"


The doomed crew of the Andrea Gail did not shout as they left the harbor, but there is plenty of "In doubt, they're acting wierd" mentioned in the book.

On Peter Gabriel's first album after leaving Genesis (way back in the mid 1970s), there was a song called "Down the Dolce Vita". It might be my favorite of his solo songs, and there are many great ones on the album. It is bombastic, operatic song that appears to be about some men about to sail into a storm from which they might never come back.

According to Wikipedia, it is a remnant from the story of a failed movie idea called Mozo:

"Earlier in his solo career, Gabriel had an idea for a movie, Mozo. In it, villagers were punished for their sins with a blood red rain. "Red Rain" was to be the theme song. This idea was eventually scrapped, although there was a mention of Mozo in the song "On the Air" in Peter Gabriel (II). Down The Dolce Vita, Here Comes The Flood, Exposure, and Big Blue Ball are also reference the Mozo story, as well."

Another web page says:

"This introduced the characters Aeron and Gorham, who set out on a journey across the sea. They would become part of Gabriel's story of Mozo, a mercurial stranger who would come and go, changing people's lives. Mozo would appear in "On The Air," "Exposure", "Red Rain," "Down The Dolce Vita," and "That Voice Again," but the Mozo story as a stage production or movie never developed."

Searching for more comments comes up with this reference buried in this web page:

"Down The Dolce Vita: This song is massive... truely. :o Reminds me of The War of the Worlds in a curious way, though."

Yes, I can see that, definitely. There is a song called "Thunder Child" in "Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds" (see my previous post). In "Thunder Child", a ship sets out to a certain doom. Not against a storm this time, but against wading Martian tripods blocking a harbor. The vintage photo view below is from the Door in the Wall blog. Well, actually a real tow ram of the Victorian era, HMS Polyphemus , a ship similar to the fictional Thunder Child.


There is also a video that attempts to set scenes from "Heroes" to the song


The entire lyrics for "Down the Dolce Vita" follow. I tried to find a good sailing-ship-in-a-storm postcard to illustrate the Dolce Vita, perhaps a sailing ship, going off into the storm. Below to the right you will find a postcard (probably a hundred years old) of a vintage view of a ship, alongside the Peter Gabriel lyrics. It is supposedly as seen seen from the Boardwack at Atlantic City. If I were on thje boardwalk and saw this, I'd run away fast as to not have the waves or the looming ship crash into me.

'Hey Mac, see you down the Dolce Vita!
'Get back, we don't have time
'Cos I hear we're sending off the heroes
When the year goes, they're out of the bay,
Trying to find a way
to make it alive'
'So long' said poor men to their families,
be strong 'til we get back home.
And if not, take care of all the children
Until then just hope and pray
We're gonna find a way
to make it alive'
'You guys are crazy'
They shout and then we leave the harbour.
In doubt, they're acting weird.
And the sea is whipping up a welcome
If hell come we're all easy prey,
Trying to find a way
to make it alive'
'You guys are crazy'
The captain's hand shook for the guys to get in place
He said, 'Let's look behind your face.'
With each corner covered, they were all around
Waiting for the midnight bell to sound
'Out of sight, cried Aeron through his glasses
'Don't fight' said Gorham's smioulder
I was scared of being easy prey,
Trying to find a way
to make it alive'

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Addendum: At Michael's suggestion, here is a link to Billy Joel's "Downeaster Alexa".

Lady Fuchsia

Discussion in a recent post by Ananda Girl reminded me of an old song by the Strawbs. It is "Lady Fuchsia", about one of the main characters in the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake. The Gormenghast books came out in the UK about the same time "The Lord of the Rings" did. It is a fantasy trilogy also, but it is nothing like "The Lord of the Rings".

It takes place at a huge castle that is like Hogwarts from "Harry Potter"...but more so. It seems obvious to many, myself included, that Hogwarts castle had its inspiration in Gormenghast.

One blogger compares the two places:

"I have complained that Rowling doesn't have the chops to provide the sense of awe and wonder that Hogwarts deserves; in fact she wastes very little ink on describing it at all. Peake succeeds in that, and the various rooms and hallways of Gormenghast provide some of the books' most captivating passages. Like Hogwarts, it is riddled with secret passageways and bizarre corners; one of my favorites is the tallest part of the castle, the Tower of Flints, where the Death Owls live who pick into oblivion anyone condemnded to death. Elsewhere it is a labyrinth of chambers, attics, roofs, and quadrangles."

This illustration is as good as any I found on the Web to give an idea of what I think the place looks like.

Fuchsia herself is a goth-girl type, of the Gormenghast royal family (the castle is so big that it is plenty for the royal family to rule, without there being a kingdom to surround the castle). She is shown in one of the author's illustrations to the above right. Also seen in the illustration is the book series' anti-hero, Steerpike. Looking at the illustration, I think he should have been played by a young Sting. Lady Fuchsia Groan also appears to the left.

A Youtube video of the song appears below, followed by the lyrics:


A child denied all love can't weep
But bravely bears her life alone
So Fuschia as you try to sleep
You dream of friends you've never known.

In troubled years when no-one cared
You searched for comfort everywhere
For heavy burdens never shared
Become too much for one to bear.

So much to give
But those who live
Don't know of you
Your fantasy
Of love to be
Cannot come true
Oh Lady Fuschia
Oh Lady Fuschia.

Now poised above the castle walls
She looks your last on lonely skies
Night owls pray for her as they call
Returning ere the dawn shall rise.

Your loveless life
Has led you here
Not knowing why
Your troubled mind's
No longer clear
To live or die
Oh Lady Fuschia
Oh Lady Fuschia.
Oh Lady Fuschia
Oh Lady Fuschia.

More "Books Books Books"

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This one was a big bestseller, and it came out a few years ago. It's a science fiction novel that won a Pulitzer Prize. That just doesn't happen very often at all.

It's not about aliens or robots or cyber-dystopias, but is part of the post-apocalyptic genre of science fiction. One web page describes the general post-apocalyptic scenario:

"It’s a classic theme of science fiction: something really, really bad happens, and mankind is knocked back to the Stone Age. Of course, with the dropping of atomic bombs by the U.S. to end World War II, people came to realize that for the first time Man himself possessed the power to bring about a global cataclysm. And science fiction wasted no time in examining the possible effects (there were speculative stories in print well before the Manhattan Project was even conceived)."

These books were of popular in the bomb-scare era of the 1950s and 1960s. Great examples include Edgar Pangborn's novels and short stores, and "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller, and "The Postman" by David Brin. In movies, the genre is well known from the second two "Mad Max" movies, "Damnation Alley", "The Postman" adaptation, and others. A popular recent twist on this is the idea of the Zombie Apocalypse.

"The Road" is a more recent example of this, and it fits in perfectly with the description of the classic theme described above. A bad event happens (probably a quick global nuclear war; the book does not really dwell on that) that leave the Earth as a cold, dying, ash-heap. It's not the Zombie Apocalypse, but it appears that most of the humans left behind have (for Lord of the Flies-type reasons) the social skills, and often the culinary habits, of zombies. Across this global version of Zug Island walks a man and his son. The man is trying best as he can to make sure his son survives and is raised properly.

I liked the book, but felt it was perhaps half as long as it could have been. It all went too quickly. But it does make me want to go back and read Edgar Pangborn's incomparable novels.

And it is going to be a movie, starring Viggo Mortensen, out very soon. Think "Aragorn in Mordor".

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"American on Purpose" by Craig Ferguson. I've been a fan of Ferguson since first seeing him chewing up the scenery as the loud boss Nigel Wick on the "Drew Carey Show". I was surprised to hear that they gave him a job hosting CBS's "Late Late Show" a few years ago. How could he get a job based on that? I figured he must have a really great agent or something.

When I ran across his autobiography, I could not help but read it. It turns out he has done a lot more than his Drew Carey role, including playing music (he was in a band with Torchwood's Peter Capaldi) and a long vaunted career in comedy performance (under the state name of Bing Hitler, of all things!).

Also, along the way, he had a rather bad time with alcoholism. So bad, in fact, that he abused drugs copiously in order to cope with the alcoholism. Which of course causes its own problems. Well, he has been clean and sober for years. I think this is the second 'recovering alcoholic celebrity" autobiography I have read, after Kelsey's Grammer's "So Far".

The title refers to Ferguson's lifelong dream and ambition to come to America, make a career here, and to be an American. Born in Scotland and raised around Glasgow, he is now an American citizen.

The book was very enjoyable. I'd recommend it for fans of the Craig Ferguson Show. I'm a fan of it, even though I've only seen a few episodes. It's on late, late, afterall. If David Letterman gets forced off of his show due to the growing scandal, Ferguson should replace him.

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"Columbus: For Gold, God, and Glory". This is a large "coffee-table" with many photos. I found out there was really a lot I did not know about the planning of Columbus' voyages. But the book was long on huge pictures and short on text, so I don't think I'm going to read it again.

Books Books Books

Some books I've read, or have been reading lately:

"The Lost Symbol ". It was fun to be reading a major bestselling book while everyone else was reading it. It is by Dan Brown, the author of "The Davinci Code". I did not have a lot of interest in reading "The DaVinci Code", so I have not read it. "The DaVinci Code" savaged Christianity and delved into old Rome. In this book, he digs into the Masons (Freemasons) instead of Christianity and old Washington, DC. Yes, a city that isn't that old at all. But he does make Washington, DC. seem very interesting. When I go back there, I will be looking for a lot more, for sure. Did you know there used to be a statue of George Washington depicted as a mighty Greek-style god in the middle of the Capitol Building?

There's one particular annoying character in the book. I forget her name, actually. She's the CIA director. Within a few lines of the character's introduction, I immediately thought she was just like Edna Mode, from the movie "The Incredibles".

Chronologically, it is a sequel to "The DaVinci Code". However, it really has nothing to do with that book, or other Dan Brown books, even if the main character is the same (the Tom Hanks guy). The events and plots of the other books are hardly mentioned at all, so it stands alone.

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"Living Dead in Dallas" by Charlaine Harris. For some reason, I keep wanting to call this "To Live and Die in Dallas" (cue the Wang Chung song). This is the 2nd of the Charlaine Harris "Southern Vampire" novels, better known for the hit TV series "True Blood" that was adapted from the books. I've only read part of it, and already a maenad has appeared. She's rather scruffy, and I think she likes to sic a razorback hog on people.

I only had an idea so far of what one character looked like: Sookie Stackhouse. I imagine her as looking like Rogue from the X-Men movies, because she is played by the same actress, Anna Paquin. This is because I've not seen the TV series yet. I have an idea on what the maenad character looks like: she is played by Michelle Forbes, recently known for playing Cmdr. Cain on the new "Battlestar Galactica", and I remember Cain. I am guessing that she does not remain scruffy for long. I suppose I could imagine the maenad looking like a friend of mine, because the friend has worn a costume of the character for Halloween. However, I can't imagine this friend siccing a razorback hog on anyone. So the maenad in my mind looks like Commander Cain.

I am likely to read all of the series without having seen a single episode of "True Blood".

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"South Manitou Island" by Myron H. Vent is about a remote island. Who doesn't like islands? This one is in Lake Michigan. Like other islands in that area, it's pretty devoid of bad history of Native Americans being driven away. The bad history it has mostly involves fatalities in shipwrecks.. Lots of them. I've been to this island and have a lot of pictures. I need to dig them out sometime. And yes, I have been to the lighthouse in the photo.

I've actually been to 5 or 6 of these islands in Lake Michigan so far.

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Has anyone read any of these books? The first two are likely to have other readers, being bestsellers.

To "V" or not to "V"

Last night the first episode of the new "V" series was on ABC. I've been looking forward to this. I missed the first "V" series(s) that were in the 1980s. It wasn't bad. The effects were so-so: The alien mothership was lumpy and silver. Sort of like if the Balloon-Boy balloon was really giant and was hovering over cities (fanciful illustration below). And the alien shuttle looked like a caterpillar with a dog head.
Early in the episode, there were scenes of the giant ships positioning themselves over city centers. Much like the Vogons in "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", or better yet, the mother ships in "Independence Day" (ID4). In fact, I made the comment out loud to the effect that if this show reflected reality, they'd have characters commenting about how this was just like ID4. Sure enough, someone did that within a minute of my comment.

I thought it was supposed to be a while before we found out that the Visitors were evil lizards, but they did reveal this in the opening episode. Juliet from "Lost" played a sort of FBI agent. I do not know the character's name, and will likely think of her as Juliet from "Lost". Scott Wolf plays a media guy in the show. I hadn't noticed before how much he resembles Michael J. Fox, and the role in "V" is actually typical of the media/PR guy roles Fox played in "Spin City" and a few movies.

Did anyone else see this new show?