is there a TV doctor in the house...?

A crappy homecoming this evening, post-advance screening of SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS. Upon returning home from catching the free screening with Joe, Dan, and Ray, we discovered that my Philips flat screen (tube, not anything fancy) TV set is no longer TV-ing! Grraaahhhh!!!!

It was working fine this morning. It was off all day until we got back, when Rowan attempted to power it on via the remote. He wasn't watching the actual set when he did it, but he heard that familiar electrical wince of the TV powering on, but the tube never lit up. I wasn't around when this went down, but was on the scene a few minutes later. I tried the remote and the power button on the set and got nothing. There's a green light that's on when the set is turned on, even before the tube "warms up" and delivers its calm, soothing light, and that green light doesn't come on at all now.

I tried plugging it into different outlets. Nothing. I felt around in back where the plug wire goes into the set and moved and twisted it a bit while trying the power button, to see if maybe the wire had been yanked or was loose or not contacting something or other inside. No luck.

I don't know TV innards so well, but I'd hafta guess that it's the power supply. Electricity isn't making it even to the green indicator light. Should I be able to take the model number of my TV to a Radio Shack or somewhere and get a replacement power supply? And should that be a simple thing to replace? Once I figure out how my TV set's case is made to be opened up...?

Frack.

Does anyone out there shooting thru the tubes of the internetz know? Please share if you can.

The Contact & Support area of the Philips website...

Question:
My set is dead, has no power, and/or the LED is flashing.

Answer:
Unit likely is in need of repair. Call Philips contact center at 1-888-PHILIPS (1-888-744-5477) for further assistance.

*sigh*

I haven't called them yet. Maybe I'll try it tomorrow. I'm going to cling to some weak denial tonight. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow it will be working again. That could happen, right?

Oh, SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS? Just about what I expected, given the setup in the commercials and trailer. Billy Bob does his thing as the insufferable bastard motivator, and as always, does it well. We even got a trailer for the next movie where he gets to do this very thing again, in/as MR. WOODCOCK. In that he's opposite Seann William Scott, who's never disappointed me and always makes me laugh. That should be some good and painful fun. Back to SCOUNDRELS...

Yeah, so Billy B is perfect as the drill sergeant how-to-be-an-alpha male instructor. Who else could deliver lessons like this with such conviction and bile?

"How many of you own self-help books? See, there's your problem. You're losers. How are you going to help ANYone, much less yourselves? When you try to get help from yourself, you're getting help from an asshole!"

I like Jon Heder as the loser/decent guy seeking guidance, but really, would it hurt to get him to try a different haircut? Maybe make it part of a makeover from loser to lion?

The movie takes maybe a little too long in the beginning establishing his loser credentials (it's slow AND a huge downer), but once it gets into the schooling part, it has a few great over-the-top physical comedy and character moments, what you'd expect from OLD SCHOOL creators, given the premise. But the big laughs are not spread out as evenly in SCOUNDRELS as in OLD. Surprise! Sarah Silverman drops some wonderfully mean bombs, and Ben Stiller plays a great scoundrel school alum (technically, he may be a dropout). Heder's fellow loser classmates, SNL, MAN BITES DOG, and HIGH FIDELITY vets, are solid, but don't get to do all that much. Basically, it's totally wait-for-it-on-DVD-able. For some reference, I told people to see BAD SANTA on the big screen when it was out. =)

Would be worth it if you're looking for some crass laughs at suburban matinee or discount ticekt price.

I was a bit dismayed at myself, just for a second, at the number of laughs the suggestion of or explicit reference to one man sexually assaulting another coaxed out of me.

Just for a second.

What? Why are you looking at me like that? You've gotta hear it in context!

=)

Keep on keepin on~