Netflix has released the first trailer for the streaming service's forthcoming original series "House of Cards."

From Media Rights Capital, digital skein is toplined by Kevin Spacey with David Fincher bringing the iconic look of "Social Network" and "Fight Club" to "Cards." Series marks Netflix's first serious foray in the original series realm after Norwegian-American series "Lilyhammer" provided some precedent earlier this year.

"House of Cards" debuts on Netflix on Feb. 1, right after the presidential inauguration (note the first scene in the trailer for parallels). Netflix will put all 13 episodes out at once at the start of February. For more info, read about Netflix's preem strategy. And check out the trailer here:

 

 

Craig Ferguson is finally getting a house band. Sort of, for a week.

Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi fame will have a weeklong stint on CBS' "Late Late Show" from Dec. 3-7 to tubthump his new album, "Aftermath of the Lowdown." Ferguson has often lamented on air about how much he'd like to have a house band, so he hailed Sambora's guest shot as a step in the right direction. And he made it clear he's not picky about what Sambora chooses to do on the show.

“I thought it would be great if you could be the house band on the show, but not necessarily play the guitar. Just you, naked, playing a tiny little harp," Ferguson quipped.

Sambora said no to the naked harp-playing, but he is determined to get Craig behind the drum kit again for a jam. Before the whole comedy thing took off, Ferguson was a journeyman drummer for 1980s punk and new wave bands in Blighty.

(Full disclosure, I was there for the taping of the Sambora "Late Late Show" announcement, to air on Friday, because I'm also guesting on Ferguson that night to mercilessly plug my new book.)

 

Of all the questions pertaining to the uncertain future of post-election America, one stands head and shoulders above them all: Whither Nate Silver?

Silver became a bona fide pop-culture sensation for his data-driven political prognostication, culminating in accurately predicting election results in all 50 states. There may be nothing more improbable than a stardom earned for calculating probabilities, but that's what the 34-year-old statistician has achieved.

Which makes it all the weirder to think that Silver has essentially outlived his usefulness now that a winner has been named, leaving him with nothing to do but perhaps hibernate until the midterm elections.

But even if Silver himself is pining to return to his low-profile existence, don't bet on it. How's this for a projection: Odds are he's going to become a media fixture outside of just election season. 

Just watch the style of projection he's applied to politics become a prism through which a broader palette of TV and online news can be filtered, from sports--where he already has experience--to science.

Between commanding one-fifth of all traffic to NYTimes.com, which hosts his blog, FiveThirtyEight, and a book, "The Signal and the Noise," currently No. 2 on Amazon's list of top selling books, the success he's experiencing ensures his post-election vacation will be a short one. He's now just as much a brand as he is a man, an alchemy that has turned Silver into the gold standard. 

As he blanketed the airwaves in recent weeks from "The Colbert Report" to "The Rachel Maddow Show" to plug his book, it undoubtedly gave the TV industry a chance to see whether could sustain a regular on-air vehicle of his own. That may not seem likely given Silver comes off with all the polish of the 34-year-old statistician he is, but his geeky charm has its possibilities. A news network could take the half-step of making him a contributor, injecting him into stories that culminate in some kind of prognostication. 

Done right, it's a fine extension of the Silver brand. Done wrong, he's going to come off like Carnac the Magnificent. It's all in the execution.

Silver might deem this a deplorable prospect. Maybe he just isn't comfortable extrapolating his calculations to areas outside of elections and feels it would dilute the integrity of his work.

But no producer with half a brain could have watched the Silver phenomenon without wondering how to steal some wind from his sails. Which isn't to say that the man himself is even necessary to capitalize on the prognostication he popularized, but networks or websites that want to try to give this a go will want to attach themselves to him to get a veneer of credibility.

Still, in calculating his own career possibilities, here's a variable Silver should consider: If he doesn't do it, someone else will. 

HBO's Twitter account unleashed a slew of hashtags and retweets in social-media celebration of the paybler's 40th anniversary yesterday. Brand launched on Nov. 8, 1972, and those manning the Twitter post at the company used hashtag #ithappenedonHBO to emphasize HBO's presence at the forefront of not only TV culture, but pop culture as well.

One tweet said "Inspiring @Time magazine to ask 'is Feminism dead?' #ithappenedonHBO (Turns out, it just needed a martini.)" and featured a photo of the "Sex and the City" cast.

"SATC," arguably the most iconic femme-forward series of all time, came to a close on the paybler in 2004, though debates about the show's implications regarding women's perception of themselves, pop culture and, yes, feminism, remain.

This year, HBO launched "Girls," a comedy that was bound to draw comparisons to "SATC": four females living in New York, exploring their relationships, the lead is a writer. While the outline of "Girls" bore stark resemblance to "SATC," the series itself breathed a different tone from the millenial Carrie Bradshaw hit.

"Girls," for one thing, is a rawer, more awkward look at the lives of today's post-grad femmes and lacks the glamour that glowed around each scene in "SATC." The four lead women on "Girls" also defy clean characterization, swaying between moments of conservatism and wild exploration of their sexuality. (Samantha on "SATC," however, remained defiantly sexual throughout the skein.)

But like "SATC," "Girls" has inspired conversation about what it means to be a woman in today's world, and with that conversation comes the weight of being the exemplar for femmes in modern culture. Season one episodes of "Girls" covered topics from HPV, to abortions, from bisexuality, to struggling to pay rent. And viewers flocked to the show, hailing it as one of the most relatable series in recent memory. Instead of dubbing themselves a "Carrie" or "Samantha," young women tweeted "#iamsolikeHannah."

HBO wisely took to youth-skewing Twitter to market the series, launching the @girlsHBO Twitter and conceiving hashtags that fans began using on their own social media sites. #GIRLSATHON was tagged during multiple-episode airings of the skein, and #TeamAdam showed support for the sexually deviant yet lovable romantic interest of Hannah.

One hashtag, #mistakesGIRLSmake, became such a hit with fans that HBO launched merchandise like t-shirts featuring the phrase.

#mistakesGIRLSmake initially showed up on Twitter as a light-hearted recap of the leads' foibles in each episode of "Girls," mimicing the self-deprecating tone of the characters themselves. But, the hashtag eventually led to Twitter users tweeting their own stories with #mistakesGIRLSmake attached to them.

"I accidentally brought a pair of worn underwear to work...mixing your work bag with your travel bag #mistakesGIRLSmake," tweeted one fan of the show. "Eating ice cream and Doritos after working out #mistakesGIRLSmake" tweeted another.

The @girlsHBO handle doles out "mistakes" from the show along with real-life examples: "I have been dating someone who treats my heart like it's monkey meat. -Hannah #mistakesGIRLSmake," tweeted @girlsHBO. "Forgetting to shave both legs" was another tweet with the hashtag attached from the show's Twitter account.

Even @HBO jumped on board the hashtag, asking users what #mistakesGIRLSmake viewers would like to see in season 2 of the show. "Mistakes" is now a word commonly used by HBO's social media team when discussing "Girls" content.

One of the brilliant elements of "Girls" is the self-deprecating, realitistic tone maintained throughout each episode. The characters' bodies are not Hollywood-perfect, their habits are flawed, and their relationships are blurred and frustrating in the same way the relationships of many average 20-somethings are.

The #mistakesGIRLSmake hashtag, though, has transformed the acceptance that the show inspires to something less positive by dubbing these relatable on screen instances, well, "mistakes."

Hannah's late night binges or dubious moves with Adam led viewers to feel their lives -- and consequently their foibles -- were finally being displayed on TV, and in a non-pejorative manner. It created an implicit sisterhood of sorts that the @girlsHBO handle was able to bank on. While the hashtag and social media efforts are by all means well-intentioned and have been warmly welcomed by femme fans on Twitter, #mistakesGIRLSmake highlights a crucial difference between "Girls" and its predecessor skein "SATC."

While "SATC" raised questions about how it portrayed women -- how can Carrie afford rent when she buys designer duds? Is her pandering to Big a slap in the face to her supposed independence? -- the show never stamped Carrie or the other lead characters' decisions with the "mistake" mark. What's more, the show never tried to capitalize on the poor decision making with a marketing campaign shaped by a slogan about the said "mistakes."

HBO's main Twitter was right: "SATC" did not signal the end of feminism as Time Magazine once suggested. And though it displayed requisite drama with boyfriends and style and gal pals, it was not a slap in the face to the socio-political progress made by women throughout the '80s and '90s. Instead, it shifted commonly held notions about what it meant to be a thirty-something female.

And "Girls," without a doubt, displays a revolution in terms of how twenty-something women are portrayed on TV.

But with a hashtag that adds momentum to female stereotypes (even if done in a comical manner), that revolution can feel uncertain. Perhaps we will reach a point as viewers where a character's questionable decisions and debatable relationships are not seen as mistakes, but rather as something far more simple -- just life.

Until then, HBO will be able to add another marker to its 40th anniversary hashtag.

Undercutting a skein's progressive tone through social media? #ithappenedonHBO.

With all of the talk of education providing opportunity during the apex of the presidential campaign, it seems fitting that today mark the start of a weeklong "Television 101" seminar hosted by the Academy of TV Arts & Sciences Foundation for select educators around the nation.

5-day retreat and seminar in Los Angeles features some of the TV industry's best and brightest providing insight and behind-the-scenes know-how to upper level teachers who specialize in television and media studies. Teachers attending the 2012 Faculty Seminar hail from universities like University of Notre Dame, Penn State and Northwestern.

Now in its 25th year, this year's Faculty Seminar will include industry members like Cynthia Cidre ("Dallas"), DeAnn Heline ("The Middle"), R.J. Cutler ("Nashville"), Michael Goi ("American Horror story"), and Kelley Dixon ("Breaking Bad"). Major broadcast nets are also lending their execs for off-the-record panels.

"In order to shape the television executives of tomorrow, we must first begin with knowledgeable educators today," said Norma Provencio Pichardo, executive director of the Television Academy Foundation.  "The Television Academy Foundation's Faculty Seminar serves as an invaluable resource for the advancement of television studies.  We're so grateful that the TV producers, executives and digital professionals who are shaping and changing our industry have embraced our program and are so generously giving their time and expertise."

 20 educators total will take part in the TV Acad Foundation's Faculty Seminar. Event runs through the end of the week.

Saturday’s 8th Annual Pink Party for Cedars-Sinai Women’s Cancer Program raised over $1.6 million, but for fete host Michelle Pfeiffer, the event had a personal edge.

“I wanted to honor one of my best friends for being an inspiration and striving to live and outsmart the inisidious nature of ovarian cancer,� Pfeiffer told Variety. “I hope my participation in the Pink Party will help raise awareness to early detection of all women’s cancers, but specifically ovarian cancer.�

Since the party’s inception in 2005, event, founded by fashion stylist and buyer Elyse Walker, has raised almost $8 million total.

“I first met Elyse and her team 13 years ago when her boutique opened,� Pfeiffer said. "Over the years I’ve watched the Pink Party grow from a little in store event in Pacific Palisades where I used to live to one of Cedars-Sinai’s biggest women’s cancer fundraisers. Elyse asked for my participation because we both share a common bond of having someone close to us with ovarian cancer. I was happy to lend my support to the research of Dr. Beth Karlan.�

Walker herself is surrounded by a celeb support system more than willing to join the Pink Party fundraising efforts.

“I always ask my celebrity clientele from the store if they would help participate,� Walker told Variety. “Everyone of them has been touched by cancer and they want to give back -- they realize the importance of philanthropy and doing something good within the community.�

This year’s event in Santa Monica brought out famous femme faces including Leslie Mann, Marcia Cross, Maria Menounos and Olivia Munn, but men of the showbiz world made appearances too, including JJ Abrams, Judd Apatow and Pfeiffer’s husband, David E. Kelly. Fashion-foward event included a runway show featuring designers like Chloe, J.Mendel, Valentino, and Stella McCartney.

“The Pink Party is a celebration of life!� Pfeiffer remarked, emphasizing it as a stand out event compared to the bounty of other fundraising dinners sprinkled throughout the year. “It isn’t a sit down dinner with speeches but more of a party with a great fashion show. It combines fashion, friendship and philanthropy in a casual, fun setting.�

Stylin' fun aside, Pfeiffer hopes the event will keep cancer detection in the forefront of women's minds moving foward: "So many women today still do not know the early symptoms. I am just trying to help spread the word and educate women," she said.

For more info on the Cedars-Sinai WCP, click here.

It's often said that truth is scarier than fiction, and cablers are spring boarding off that mentality with a slate of spooky (and silly) unscripted programming for Halloween season. Your channel lineup can be a horrifyingly vast pile of shows to sort through, but rest assured, we're making your DVR experience less frightening and more simple -- here is a roundup of some of the Halloween-themed nonfiction shows coming up:

THE QUIRKY

"The Haunting Of" (Bio) - "Who Do You Think You Are?" meets "Paranormal Activity" as psychic-medium Kim Russo syncs up with celebs who have had their lives changed by paranormal events. Folks like Regis Philbin, Eric Mabius and Gina Gershon return to the site of their spooky experience to gain some closure...and, well, some exposure too. Premieres Saturday, Oct. 27 at 10pm.

"Long Island Medium" Extended Episodes (TLC) - What's better than Theresa Caputo? More Theresa Caputo. Catch extended runs of select "Long Island Medium" episodes where Caputo channels the voices of the dead in between manicures and hairspray touch ups. While you may not see dead people, you may end up eyeing a Caputo-themed Halloween costume. Practice your Long Island drawl now. Premieres Monday, Oct. 29 at 8pm.

THE CREEPY-CRAWLY

Nat Geo Wild's Monster Bash - On the Sunday before Halloween, Nat Geo Wild is boasting a marathon of psychotic animal programming to the tune of "Zombie Sea Lions," "Hogzilla," and "Freaks & Creeps: Weirdest Monkey Alive." I mean...how could you not tune in? "Antzilla," people. "Antzilla." Sunday, Oct. 28 from 12pm till 10pm.

Nat Geo Wild's Spider Stack - Arachnophobes should completely avoid Nat Geo Wild on Halloween as the channel is slapping a four-hour programming block of only spider shows in one creepy as hell place. Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 7pm.

THE FUNNY

Comedy Central's Boo-Ha-Ha - Sweating fear-induced bullets not your thing? Don't worry, Comedy Central isn't about that either. Get your LOL on with a full day of hilarious Halloween programming including stand up speshes like "Jeff Dunham: Minding the Monsters." Wednesday, Oct. 31 from 10am till 9:30pm.

"Toddlers & Tiaras", "Halloween Bash" (TLC) - Not enough kids showing up for candy on Halloween? Get your fill of pint-sized costumes during this Halloween special of "Toddlers & Tiaras" that centers on a glitzed-out Halloween pageant in Oklahoma City. (Wonder what Alana Honey-Boo-Boo will dress up as?) Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 2pm.

THE EDUCATIONAL

"Mythbusters," "Fright Night" (Discovery) - "Fright Night" marks "Mythbusters' first-ever Halloween spesh. Tackled myths include: can a certain frequency of sound convince people of paranormal activity? Is moving a dead body easy? Can you smell fear? No word yet on ultimate "Fright Night" question: what's living in Jamie Hyneman's beard? Sunday, Oct. 28 at 10pm.

THE "AW HELLLLL NAW"

"The Dark" (Discovery) - Are you into wading through crocodile-filled rivers and shark-infested waters? Or getting up close and personal with vampire bats? What if all under darkness? No? Well fine, luckily there are wildlife experts to bear that cross in Discovery's "The Dark." Two-hour spesh uses state of the art technology to delve into the rarely-seen lives of animals once the sun sets. Saturday, Oct. 27 at 9pm.

"Monsters Inside Me," "My Daughter is Losing Her Mind" (Animal Planet) - Forget movies about possession -- the real horror existing in the world (and our bodies) are parasites. Animal Planet's "Monsters Inside Me" manages to tap into everyone's primal "GET IT OUT" instincts. While you may have missed the "My Face-eating Parasite" spesh from last week (catch it on reruns!), this episode focuses on parasites in the brain, leg muscles, etc., etc., never drink shady-looking water again, etc. Friday, Oct. 26 at 8pm.

 

In the grand scheme of the CNN global money-making machine, $20 million may amount to a rounding error. But it's not an insignificant sum  considering the cost of the in-depth investigative efforts that should be the hallmark of any serious news organization.

So when CNN spent $20 million to acquire the news personalization service Zite last year, it's reasonable to expect it make a meaningful contribution to the business. Which makes Zite's deployment on CNN.com this week something of a head-scratcher.

Zite is powering CNN Trends, a new "news discovery dashboard," and dashboard is a term used in the loosest, most charitable sense of the word. CNN Trends is essentially a single page that compiles the top 10 stories "trending" on social media, and automatically aggregates for each story a collection of stories from outside the website to accompany CNN's own take.

This isn't going where you think it is. Sure, the most obvious question that comes to mind when it comes to an aggregation strategy like this is, why offer users an alternative to your own content when that risks pulling them away from your own site?

But that's not what's questionable about CNN's integration of Zite (which continues to function as a freestanding app). What CNN is doing is acknowledging the reality that its users typically graze across the Internet for different versions of the stories that interest them most--a notion hopefully supported by user data than mere presumption.

Rather than let its users leave CNN.com to let a search engine enable that habit, the website is smart to step in and attempt to establish itself as a starting--and ending--point for consumers' diversified news diets.

CNN should be commended for taking such a counterintuitive, dare I say disruptive, approach to its business. But just about every other element of how Zite has been integrated into CNN.com doesn't make as much sense.

For starters, the true power of Zite is in its ability to personalize the news to each reader's individual interests, not a collective interest that speaks to no one in particular. The stories that are going to prompt me to want to read multiple versions are going to be the ones most relevant to me, not the masses.

As for the ability to read multiple versions, that's nice but not exactly the most compelling value-add that would keep me from going back to Google News to get identical service. It would have been better to get some sense of qualitative judgment of the stories being culled instead of what seems to be a random sampling. Most of the multiple versions that pop up are purely duplicative of CNN's own story, offering nothing new.

Trust me, you've read one "Drake Graduates From High School" story, you've read them all.

Better yet, CNN/Zite, go back to the drawing board and figure out a way to make aggregation a one-page experience that eliminates the risk of me leaving CNN.com and truly distills differentiated information from each story into one uber-story. It probably takes a human curator to make it happen, but perhaps for high-interest stories, that's a justified expenditure.

What Zite should do is give me a door into CNN that is reading me as much as I am reading the site, collecting information about my interests and presenting me with a version of the site that reflects those interests. And Zite would be better off as a button that appears alongside every story on CNN.com than in a sequestered dashboard.

Surely CNN Trends is just the first step in what will become a more sophisticated product over time. But the way Zite is utilized here is so embryonic compared to what it could conceivably deliver that it's worth asking what's the point of CNN taking it to market at this early stage.

This week, NBC announced that "Whitney" would replace recently-canned "Animal Practice" in its Wednesday night lineup starting Nov. 14. Announcement comes after the Oct. 19 preems of "Whitney" and "Community" were delayed earlier this month due to the Peacock's marketing resources being poured into its Monday and Wednesday night skeds.

So, with "Whitney" now comfortably settled into a premiere date, fans of cult comedy "Community" are left wondering: What the hell, NBC?! Where's our premiere date?

The laffer's new showrunners, David Guarascio and Moses Port, have taken to Twitter over the last several weeks to transform that sentiment into something fittingly more comedic.

 

Granted, "Community" fans are no strangers to indefinite hiatuses, given the extended absence that the laffer had from NBC's mid-season schedule earlier in the year. So, with the anticipated premiere date now preserved only in outdated press releases, Guarascio and Port have offered "Community" fans a small consolation prize in the form of a short, borderline incomprehensible YouTube video that immortalizes the date October 19.

 

Notably present in the short vid is Chevy Chase, who last month dubbed doing "Community" a "big mistake" during an interview with Huffington Post UK.

Guess that assertion doesn't apply to YouTube clips.

 

With the wind finally beneath the Peacock's wings thanks to "The Voice" and "Revolution," the network might be tempted to shrug off Thursday's cancellation of "Animal Practice" as just another casualty, the kind of loss every broadcaster will inevitably suffer every fall season. But "Practice" isn't just another sitcom for NBC.

"Animal Practice" was something of a sneak peek at the new creative direction NBC wanted to take with its comedies, as entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt first laid out in his presentation the TV Critics Assn. press tour in July. With comedies like "30 Rock" and "Community" winning over critics but few others given their meager ratings, he signaled a transition in development to "broader" comedies that appealed to a wider audience.

With the misadventures inside a animal hospital as its silly premise, "Practice" was tailor-made to play to the cheap seats instead of the Emmy crowd. When a monkey attracts more attention than any human in the cast, you have the kind of show that plays better in Peoria than either coast. Same goes for its Wednesday 8 p.m. hour mate "Guys With Kids," which isn't faring much better in the ratings.

The comedy's failure could be cited as a rejection of NBC's new direction. But that would be a mistake.

This is the trouble that sometimes comes with repositioning a network's programming. Even a decent comedy like "Practice" may have been doomed from the start for little other reason than fans of broad comedies have been conditioned by NBC for years not to expect shows targeted to appeal to them.

Sure, "Practice" could have exploded into a huge hit off the bat and singlehandedly accelerated NBC's broader approach. But just because that didn't happen doesn't mean NBC should run back to its comedic comfort zone: narrowly appealing half-hours that really belong on a cable network happy to get the kind of audience that just doesn't cut it on broadcast.

Consequently, it's going to take more than a few cracks at a new crowd-pleasing style of comedy for NBC before it can be seen again as the place for viewers to perceive the network as a home for the kind of broad laffers that NBC made its specialty in decades past, including "The Cosby Show."

But the fact that the memory of "Cosby" et al still linger in the brand DNA of NBC is partly what enables the network to mine this territory again. The failure of "Practice" shouldn't discourage the network from staying the course on its new comedy direction. 

Showtime's late night skein "Gigolos" certainly blurs the line between reality television and softcore porn as it follows a handful of male escorts in Las Vegas.

Similarly, "Gigolos" cast member Nick Hawk's music video for his single "Gigolow" (see what he did there?!) blurs the line between horrible and brilliant as he slings poetic verses like "I make a big entrance/I like to be naked." Another Nick, this time of the "Cannon" variety, once rapped about being a "gigolo, spending lots of dough," but Hawk's take on the lifestyle (bred from personal experience) far exceeds Cannon's Top 40 hit.

Kudos to Hawk, though, for issuing credit where credit is due. Whilst flanked by women gyrating around and wielding champagne, Hawk proclaims, "People know the part I'm playing/And it's my time to show/It's Showtime, time to let the cameras roll/It's way too late, I made a deal and sold my soul."

That's some reality skein contract.

Check out the quote-worthy music vid here:

 

One fond memory I have from summer TCAs (now, now, that's not an oxymoron!) is watching a cast member from Nat Geo's "Doomsday Preppers" explain what's in his survival kit to a bewildered member of the press in a random hallway of the Beverly Hilton. "It'll get you through three days," the cast member earnestly said, unloading items like canned food and flashlights from his pack. This was well after the reality show's panel had wrapped up, well after Nat Geo introduced other show panels, and made me realize: holy crap, these people weren't in character, they really do this! And now they want this journalist to survive the apocalypse too!

"Doomsday Preppers," a reality show that is either perfect or terrible for the paranoid at heart, is Nat Geo's highest-rated series and centers on average American families milling about their daily lives while preparing for the end of the world. Viewers are introduced to the "prepper community," "bug out bags," and secret locations like caves or underground shelters where one can do the ultimate duck and cover during calamitous events. In short, they will put your child's school earthquake kits to shame.

Michael Cascio, exec veep of programming for the cabler, admits that while some of the show's preppers seem extreme, "after hearing each one's story and reasons for prepping, we are all guilty of checking our own pantries to see if we are prepared to survive a catastrophic event." Nat Geo also boasts an impressive shopping page for the series, where viewers can buy branded items along with field radios and deluxe Swiss army knives.

The second season of "Doomsday Preppers" features folks prepping for events like global economic collapse, earthquakes, and terrorist small-pox epidemics. Can't wait for the Nov. 13 premiere? Peep this exclusive sneak peek footage and start counting your canned goods. The Mayan apocalypse is a mere handful of weeks away, after all...

  

The heyday of the circus sideshow act exists in the 21st century as a distant memory, usually preserved by grainy sepia photos and folklore that rarely impresses today's historical skeptics. Yet, the sentiments that drove average citizens to these sideshow acts a century ago are persistent in the psyches of modern Americans...except, instead of being coralled inside circus tents, people are now coralled in front of television sets as they ogle the bizarre on reality TV.

These TV shows, of course, provide a far more humane edge to deformities, birth defects and strange talents than did their predecessor freak show format. Many specials highlight the need for medical research within the rare diseases and disability spectrum, and prompt outreach and donations to those in need. But whether seen as purely exploitive or educational content, cable docuseries and specials not only capitalize on Americans' love of the odd, they also document the same anomalies that commoners gawked at in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Never has there been a time when the strange was so accessible to an audience craving abnormal fare, whether with series like TLC's familial series "Little People, Big World," Nat Geo's docuseries "Taboo," or campy yakkers like "Maury." Here, I collect some of the parallels:

 

Vintage sideshow act: The Tattooed Man or Lady. Circus attendees enjoyed seeing an extreme feat of body art. Performers, often former servicemen or tattoo artists sporting their own work, would strip down, exposing fully body suits of inked traditional tattoo designs.

Modern reality TV: "Miami Ink," "LA Ink," and "Ink Masters" are just a few examples of the tattoo-themed reality shows that have saturated the cable TV market. Unscripted skeins offer perspective into tat culture and, of course, allow viewers to peep some seriously intense body art.

 

Vintage sideshow act: The Fattest Woman on Earth. "Mrs. Pete Robinson" performed at circus sideshows and reportedly topped out at over 600 lbs. 

Modern reality TV: Robinson's weight pales in comparison to the subjects of today's docu specials including TLC's recent crime mystery "Half-Ton Killer?", featuring Mayra Rosales who topped out at 1,000 lbs. Extreme weight specials have become a staple for cablers like TLC over the last several years, sometimes spotlighting the dating lives of the morbidly obese.

 

Vintage sideshow act: The Big-Footed Woman. Spectators gathered to see women like Fanny Mills, whose legs were swollen to gargantuan proportions. Mills may have had Millroy disease, though people with a similar disease, elephantitis, were also frequently put on display at sideshow acts.

Modern reality TV: "The Woman With Giant Legs" on TLC chronicled the struggles of Mandy Sellars and shocked viewers who screencapped scenes from the program and uploaded them online.

 

Vintage sideshow act: The Fiji Mermaid. Barnum of Barnum & Bailey Circus attached the skeleton of a monkey with the lower half of a large fish and voila! Mythical sea creature that folks paid money to lay their eyes on.

Modern reality TV: Discovery Channel aired "Mermaid: The Body Found," a special whose broadcast looked suspiciously like a documentary with grainy "cellphone" footage and interviews with purported scientists. The spectacle turned out to be a 2-hour scifi spesh, though, unbeknownst to many viewers who took to the internet with questions about the mermaid after buying into "The Body Found."

 

Vintage sideshow act: Hottentot Venus or other native acts. Europeans and Americans alike maintained a fascination with exotic natives from foreign lands who were imprisoned and put on display at freak shows.

Modern reality TV: Nat Geo has frequently aired specials and series like the "Tribal Odyssey" series that center on tribes and their rituals in undeveloped lands. While this nonfiction TV fare is widely considered to be educational, the appetite for footage of obscure and unreachable lands and the people that inhabit them has remained strong over several decades.

 

Vintage sideshow act: Conjoined twins. Siamese twins were a staple at most freak shows, featuring both children and adults attached at one body part or another.

Modern reality TV: TLC has chronicled the lives of conjoined twins Abigail and Brittany Hensel from their childhood to their experience as twenty-somethings searching for jobs in 2012 series "Abby & Brittany." The twins have appeared on "Oprah," UK-based specials and on additional specials that aired on both Discovery and TLC.

Vintage sideshow act: Tom Jack, The Ice King. Jack was born in 1884 with severe albinism and joined the sideshow circuit, showing off his pigmentless skin and magic tricks inspired by Houdini.  

Modern reality TV: "True Life: I'm An Albino" documented the lives of three young people as they pursue college and careers while living with albinism. Sections of the episode included cast members auditioning for films, learning how to drive and dealing with onlookers who dubbed them "Casper" and other derogatory names.

 

Vintage sideshow act: The Human Blockhead and other ostensibly masochistic acts. Performers would hammer objects into their nose, lie on a bed of nails, eat fire, pierce themselves, swallow swords or staple items to their bodies while spectators watched.

Modern reality TV: MTV's "Jackass" franchise has proven that viewers -- particularly within the young male demo -- will tune in to watch others purposefully injure themselves. The reality show originally aired on MTV from 2000-2002 and has since spawned spinoffs including "Wildboyz," "Viva La Bam" and several feature films.

Adult Swim is without a doubt the nuttiest channel in all of TV, but it topped even itself last night by airing "The Greatest Event in Television History." Which goes without saying is a shot-by-shot remake of the forgotten CBS series "Simon & Simon." Jon Hamm and Adam Scott play the titular Simons, Paul Rudd is their demanding director, and Jeff Probst, Kathryn Hahn, Megan Mullaly and Paul Scheer (who wrote the sketch) also appear, proving some of Hollywood's funniest people have way too much time on their hands.

A rock documentary from local station KABC-TV will be available to auds worldwide after the L.A. b'caster nabbed streaming rights to the doc.

"Legends of Laurel Canyon" centers on the famed rock and roll artists of the '60s and '70s who lived in the Angeleno hills. Musical greats residing in the Laurel Canyon area included Jimi Hendrix, Jim

Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, Brian Wilson, Carole King and many more.

Hourlong "Eye on L.A." doc has been KABC-TV reporter Tina Malave's project for the last year. She worked closely with rock historian Harvey Kubernik, who authored "Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and Music of Laurel Canyon" to bring the area's history to the docu spesh. In a post on website "On The Red Carpet," Malave said:

About a year and a half ago, I was doing a story on the legendary Houdini Estate that I had often driven past while cruising over Laurel Canyon, a woodsy, mountainous area in Los Angeles that connects the San Fernando Valley on one side of the hill, to the Sunset Strip on the other.

While I was interviewing the caretaker of the estate, she started telling me that Laurel Canyon had a really cool musical history. That Frank Zappa once lived across the street, Jim Morrison just down the street and Mama Cass Elliot even lived in the basement of the popular Laurel Canyon Country Store, a small market just across from Jim Morrison's pad. And that began my journey into the magical world of Laurel Canyon circa 1960s-70s.

Local Angelenos can catch "The Legends of Laurel Canyon" on ABC 7 this Saturday at 8:30 p.m. But, should interested viewers live outside of the L.A. area -- or the U.S. in general -- they can catch the doc on http://www.abc7.com/eyeonla for a limited time.