Monster House: Rubbish. It's Candid Camera but with regular characters... so any kind of popularity would destroy the format as the characters would be recognised.
Underbelly: I didn't watch it, nor do I want to. Whoever though it would be smart to make a series about the (alleged) criminal activity of people who are still alive (or un-incarcerated) enough to complain about it? Oh yeah, ratings. The thought of seeing the "underworld war" all in one neat little package instead of in snippets over the last decade is interesting, but I'd prefer a well researched documentary, not a dramatisation pretending to be the truth but warning it's not true enough to complain when it's wrong.
So You Think You Can Dance Australia: As good as the American series, but with judges who are (so far) less annoying. Excellent fun. I look forward to seeing if the choreographers can match the American series. I secretly think not.
Little Britain Abroad: I little Little Britain when it started, but I didn't find a single thing about this series the least bit funny.
Back to You: About as funny as Frasier. So you know... kinda.
Rules of Engagement: I was surprised by this. I like David Spade but didn't expect much. Full of cliche relationship jokes but for some reason they hit home. I doubt it has much staying power, and I wouldn't go out of the way to watch it. I'd stick it in the pile with My Name Is Earl and How I Met Your Mother. I'd watch 'em but only if they're in my face.
Now why do I think it's OK to write reviews like this for TV when I can't bring myself to do the same for music?
In researching Burt Bacharach's "Make It Easy on Yourself" (originally bought in my quest for versions of "This Guy's In Love") I found it's Wikipedia article (of course). The article describes how often the song was a hit and it's various cover versions. Most versions described were within the decade of the song's writing, and none were Burt singing.
Burt Bacharach was (is) a song writer who wrote pop songs and who's songs regularly went on sell very well, regardless of who was singing them.
This happens today, but the hit makers are hidden and not publicised, and sell their tracks to people like Celine Dion and Britney.
And rather than covers, the songs are recycled with different production and lyrics for different markets (see Veronica's 4Ever and Pink's U+Ur Hand).
Was Burt unusual in his popularity? Why did people look for his music and advertise him (the song writer) in the 60s, when now we advertise Britney instead of Max Martin?
If I had to find a similar example, I'd have to say someone like Timberland who writes and produces songs and uses popular singers to perform them, but still releases the songs under his name.
My perception from researching Burt is that the songwriters were as respected as the performers, and the best performers were sought out to record the best songs.
The song was the desired product.
As I said... it's a perception. Perhaps Burt was unusual. Perhaps Burt had his market, and his songs have survived, but at the time, who really knows what was really going on? And I'm not saying covers don't happen now...
In today's "all music available all the time" iTunes market, how well does Burt's music compete against today's new publicised music, verses all the released music of all time?
Do people still buy his tracks on iTunes?