TVSquad

You may have seen that Billy Bob Thornton interview in Toronto. Last night he explained what happened to Jimmy Kimmel. He also says that if you enjoyed the odd interview, then you're a humpback geek (which will be my new band name if I ever start one).

I thought of this show a few weeks ago when I started to see the commercials for Billy Bob Thornton's new movie, The Astronaut Farmer, about a guy who builds his own rocket in his barn so he can blast into space.

Salvage 1 was a short-lived show that starred Andy Griffith as a salvager who sells scrap that he finds and goes on various adventures with his cohorts (rescuing people, battling fires, getting involved with crooks, that sort of thing). The series co-starred Joel Higgins (Silver Spoons), Trish Stewart (whatever happened to her?), and Richard Jaeckel (Spenser: For Hire), and it was based on a TV movie of the same name in which Griffith built a rocket on his own and blasted off into space.

I can't tell you how much I loved this movie when I was a teen. If you had asked me in the late 70s what the best movie of all time was, I probably would have said this one. Sadly, the show died after only a season and a half. It couldn't quite match the charm of the pilot, but was pretty darn entertaining.

Turner Broadcasting just inked a deal with NBC Universal that puts a bunch of movies, including this winter's King Kong, on its networks in 2008. Not sure if the NBC network had the first right of refusal on that movie, but you would think so.

Along with King Kong, Turner also bought the rights to air these movies in 2008:

• The Ice Harvest, starring Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack;
• Doom, starring The Rock;
• Two for the Money, starring Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey;
• Prime, starring Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman.