Did you know that John Lithgow was originally offered the role of Frasier Crane on CHEERS, Rosie O’Donnell had tested for the part of Elaine on SEINFELD, or that Nicollette Sheridan had almost been cast in WILL & GRACE when Debra Messing initially passed? You will when you take our advice and pick up Warren Littlefield’s account of his time spent as NBC President in his appropriately titled tome “Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Muse See TV.” What’s more, since Littlefield’s remarkably successful run that resulted in hits like SEINFELD, FRIENDS, FRAISER, ER, CHEERS, LAW & ORDER and WILL & GRACE transformed no-name actors into household names, the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Kelsey Grammer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Julianna Marguiles, Anthony Edwards among many, many others were only too happy to go on record and recount one of the most exciting eras in television history. [$13.99 via Amazon]
There is a very good reason why the Slingbox is making its third consecutive appearance on our annual Holiday Gift Guide. Simply put, short of our iPhone, it’s hands down the coolest gadget we’ve ever owned Seriously. Years later we still marvel at the fact that a little black box plugged directly into our cable box gives us the ability to watch TV anywhere there is an internet connection. iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, Kindle Fire or Windows Device, your entire PVR/DVR is only click away. [Amazon]
Hate commercials… but not enough to fork over even more money to monopolizing cable companies intent on financially bleeding you dry for a DVR/PVR of your very own? Well, have we got the device for you: A Tablet! Any Tablet. Be it Apple iPad, Google Android or Windows Surface, nothing helps pass two minutes of annoying commercials — when you’ve run out of trips to the bathroom and/or refrigerator that is — like a quick game of the maddeningly addictive Scrabble-esque Words with Friends! [Editor’s Note: We’re “theTVaddict” if you fancy yourself a match!] or perusing Twitter to find out what your fellow TV Addicts are thinking of a particular plot twist!
As much as we like to make jokes at print media’s expense, a gig at Entertainment Weekly is still on our bucket list. Which is why, in an effort to ensure that “our bible” is still around should that day ever come, we thought we’d take this opportunity to pay it forward. Breaking News: Magazines still exist! What’s more, not only have they never been more affordable, they’re now downloadable with the swipe of a finger on those aforementioned tablets we just talked about! [See subscriptions for Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and Vanity Fair]
Do you ever find yourself mentally adding up the amount of money you’ve spent on that Ikea shelf-sized TV on DVD collection? We do! Which is precisely why we recently made a pledge to stop carelessly spending money on TV on DVD collections and start spending a mere $7.99 per month on Netflix! A subscription that will allow us to spend much of this upcoming holiday break geeking-out streaming such must-see-TV as SHERLOCK (Season Two), DAMAGES (Season Five) and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (Any episode involving the Borg!) [Netflix]
Not enough Holiday Gift Ideas for you? Check out last year’s Tech-Fix skewed Gift Guide by clicking here.