The cult classic Little Shop of Horrors has once again become relevant, thanks to the magical powers of YouTube. You see, the 1986 musical about a blood-sucking plant has an alternate ending that was changed at the last minute due to whining from test audiences. It apparently cost $5 million and 11 months to produce and was released for a mere five days back in 1998 until a copyright scuffle caused the DVD to be recalled. During the ongoing legal battle, Warner Brothers believed the original ending was lost in a studio fire — but voila! Here it is, lurking around the Internets.
The 24-minute alternate ending begins above and continues after the jump. It's magic!
Listen, I'm not going to pretend I'm some sort of pop culture expert or anything, even though that's what it says on my business cards. So I won't even pretend to know why Adult Swim, most known for its cartoon about talking milkshakes and wads of meat, released a hip-hop album called African Swim, that you can download here. All I know is that it is amazing, and you should all listen to track seven, "The Place I'm From" by Rusty Dusty. Phe-nomenal.
Can you believe that Survivor has already been on for 16 seasons? Jeff Probst can't, especially since it's taken him nearly that long to win an Emmy for his work as host. But if the ratings year's award ceremonies featuring the reality-television stars are any indication, viewer interest in watching contestants eat bugs and create alliances is waning.
Though Survivor is still #1 in its time slot on CBS Thursdays, viewership has decreased over 50%, and with the economy being what it is, there is little chance that advertisers will be willing to invest the big money they used to.
"After eight years, you’ve got to wonder what’s left to come up with,” said David C. Joyce, a media equity analyst at Miller Tabak & Company who follows CBS."
Is the decline in Survivor interest a sign of the upcoming hard times ahead? Will the new Depression really be heralded in by the dearth of reality television as the ubiquitous canary in a coalmine?
The pop culture end of days is upon us! Repent, and check out three other recent examples of penny-pinching in pop, after the jump:
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Syracuse University quote machine Robert Thompson once again faced off against the pop culture expert competition today on ABCNews.com, whose entertainment stories may or may not exist only to get soundbites from these type of people.
Earlier this month we cited Thompson for not scoring a quote in an article when other "general entertainment knowledge professionals," like Buffalo University's Elayne Rapping, did.
This time around, Thompson did score a quote, but it was on page two of "Owen Wilson's Tell-All or PR Ploy?" — and came after a bite from Rapping. Ouch.
Watch out, Robert Thompson: Looks like your monopoly on pop culture soundbites might be facing some competition.
Every lazy reporter's dream, Thompson regularly supplies quotables on everything from American Idol to High School Musical from his office suite at Syracuse University. Thompson is usually referred to as a "pop culture expert." Around Jossip HQ, he's referred to as "Syracuse University's best branding mechanism."
Imagine our surprise, then, when ABCNews.com's Emily Friedman found multiple pop culture experts at universities who are not Robert Thompson for an article about legal liability at reality TV shows.
During an uncharacteristic visit to Entertainment Weekly's website this morning, we came across an amazing piece of journalism in which EW editors confess their most embarrassing pop-culture blind spots.
And while we enjoyed reading Joshua Rich's apology for never having having watched The Simpsons ("The first nine chords of the theme song—you know, the notes I hear just after the news ends and just before I flip over to The Daily Show—they make The Simpsons sound so smart and funny") we were damn near blown away by Annie Barrett's musings on the incomprehensibility of mainstream music.
Do you have to be sexy to be a hit female pop star these days? 'Yes!' says CNN, citing Beyonce, Gwen Stefani and the untalented (but svelte!) Pussycat Dolls as evidence. However, they note that certain singers may have somehow infiltrated the Top 40 list despite having, say, less than perfect looks.
Congratulations, Amy Winehouse! You truly have succeeded against all odds.
VH1 wants you for their new, ridiculous Entertainment Weekly sponsored "“World Series of Pop Culture." The show is holding auditions for young thangs to go whore out their pop culture know all.
So basically, if you watch Lost, read Star, and understand the cultural irrelevance of the New York Times, you are one of the culturally aware who could win 100,000 big ones. We just knew that someday, everyone would be able to share the flow of money spewing from Paris Hilton's open legs.
vh1.com [VH1]
Editorial Director
