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Saturday, December 22
On this day...in 1961, "Clown, hobo, ballet dancer, bagpiper, and an army major -- a collection of question marks. Five improbable entities stuck together into a pit of darkness. No logic, no reason, no explanation; just a prolonged nightmare in which fear, loneliness and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows. In a moment we'll start collecting clues as to the whys, the whats and the wheres. We will not end the nightmare, we'll only explain it -- because this is" the classic "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" episode of... "The Twilight Zone."
Journalist and author Dick Schaap died at the age of 67 on Friday. The obituary on ESPN.com has a sidebar with a list of tributes including 24 hours of programming on ESPN Classic starting at noon on Saturday, December 29th. Also on ESPN, "SportsCenter Special: Legends of Our Time" Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m., Sunday's "The Sports Reporters," and the excellent documentary "Dick Schaap, Flashing Before My Eyes" on Monday from 10 p.m. to midnight.
He said in an interview, "I was among the first to cross the line from print journalism to so-called electronic journalism." An excerpt on Billy Crystal and Muhammad Ali from "Flashing Before My Eyes," his autobiography, is online. So is his introduction to "The Best American Sports Writing 2000." He talked about Ali in March on "The Connection." In addition to covering sports and politics, Schaap did regular reviews of Broadway shows for ABC's overnight news program, "World News Now." (a show he was occasionally known to co-anchor!--AB) Schaap liked to say he was the only man who voted for both the Heisman Trophy and the Tony Awards. (here are Real Audio of two recent shows and text of a review of a production of "James Joyce's The Dead").
Overheard on the Echo bulletin board:
While reading about the fate of "Undeclared" in this story, you may be learning for the first time about the wicked e-mail exchange between "Undeclared" creator Judd Apatow and "That '70s Show" producer Mark Brazill that also managed to rope in former Letterman head writer Rodney Rothman and "Freaks and Geeks" creator Paul Feig. It was a doozy, as the two sides tossed around such bon mots as "Get cancer" and "That's a Sam Kinison line you stupid [bleep]!" Here is the text of that flamefest, courtesy of author Cory Doctorow.
Friday, December 21
Tonight "Nightline" focuses on freedom of speech. As producer Leroy Sievers explains, the publisher of the Sacramento Bee was booed during a commencement speech where she raised questions about the erosion of civil liberties. They will show parts of a videotape of the speech and the complete text is online.
AT&T Broadband and Comcast are likely to win approval for their proposed merger, but that hasn't stopped the hand-wringing among those worried about a handful of companies controlling nearly all the multichannel biz.
Hear me, hear me. I'm on with Paul Harris this afternoon at 1:20 Central time on the Big 550, KTRS (listen online).
On this day...in 1952, Paramount announces it will soon begin producing television programs, although nobody is quite ready for "Homeboys From Outer Space" and "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer."
"Frontline" aired one of their best shows this year, "Merchants of Cool," Thursday night (check the listings for your PBS station - you may still be able to see it). The website has interviews with Robert McChesney, Mark Crispin Miller, Ann Powers, John Seabrook and executives from MTV. There is also an examination of "Total Request Live" and Carson Daly (who will also soon be hosting "Later" on NBC).
Thursday, December 20
As I predicted, EchoStar has put its own unique spin on the AT&T-Comcast merger news. CEO Charlie Ergen argues that the combined company will affect not 22 million but 40 million cable customers thanks to AT&T's 25 percent interest in Time Warner cable systems "and other attributable subscribers." Which, according to Ergen, "illustrates why the pending merger of EchoStar and Hughes Electronics is essential ... . Simply put, the EchoStar/Hughes merger is the best hope to create the efficiencies necessary to compete effectively against these cable behemoths."
LA Times TV critic Brian Lowry can't believe how film critics are gushing about David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr.", which started life as pilot for ABC, but has been recut with additional footage. He complains that "their endorsement reflects the ultimate example of intellectual hubris--the assumption if you don't understand it, it must be brilliant." (BTW, I have not seen it and am not expressing this as my opinion.)
I liked "Mulholland Drive." No, I didn't understand it all, and it was clear Lynch tacked an ending on the pilot he originally shot. But there were brilliant parts. It certainly was Lynch's best film since "Blue Velvet" (though I haven't seen "The Straight Story"). I wish ABC had picked it up as a series to see how it would have developed. It would have been more interesting than "Wasteland," the short-lived Kevin Williamson series they did air that season. More "Mulholland" resources: The New Yorker's Tad Friend chronicled what happened with Lynch's pilot. Andy Klein interviewed Lynch and he contributed to Salon's excellent "Everything you wanted to know about 'Mulholland Drive'" (which you should bookmark and read after you've seen the film). Also, the first season of "Twin Peaks" has been released on DVD.--Steve Rhodes
The "NewsHour" on PBS is scheduled to do a segment today on media coverage of religion since September 11th. An online version will be posted after 9 p.m. on the media section of their site. Dan Rather writes that the "CBS Evening News" tonight will "broadcast from New York's Ground Zero, the site where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center once stood, the site where over 3,000 people lost their lives 100 days ago." And they also feature religion: "With so many Americans seeking solace in faith after September 11th, Byron Pitts found a priest, the brother of a World Trade Center victim, who has found strength in his god and in his congregation."
On this day...in 1954, Buick Motor Company signs Jackie Gleason to a record setting contract of $6,142,500 to produce 78 half-hours of programming over a two-year period.
Dramatic tidbit of the day from Marc Berman's column: Ratings for "The Ricki Lake Show" are off 41 percent year-to-year. "Sally" has faded by 29 percent in what has generally been an off year for established talk shows.
Columbia University announced the winner of the prestigious A.I. duPont Awards for excellence in electronic journalism Wednesday. Update: The winners have been posted.
Those of you who read Tim Goodman's profile of KRON-TV GM Paul "Dino" Dinovitz may wonder where Young Broadcasting found someone so willing to captain their sinking Bay Area ship. As I revealed in a profile last year for Electronic Media, Dinovitz was merely the most successful local TV manager of the '90s, turning around a decrepit Kansas City ABC affiliate and making it the jewel of the Hearst chain. If anyone can ward off seemingly imminent disaster at KRON ÷ which loses its NBC affiliation next month ÷ it's Dino.
There's a new king-of-the-hill in the world of cable TV, and its name is Comcast. The closely-held father-son company shocked Wall Street by edging out the more highly favored AOL Time Warner and Cox to win the bidding war for AT&T Broadband. It's a personal triumph for the Roberts family, which built Comcast into one of the country's three largest cable companies, and got the whole AT&T sweepstakes underway last summer with their brazen, $40 billion hostile bid ÷ at a time when the phone giant had not stated any plans to sell off its cable assets.
As a result of this deal, some 80 percent of multichannel customers in the U.S. will do business with just five companies. Comcast will have more than 20 million customers in the fold. (This, I imagine, will make it slightly easier for EchoStar chief Charlie Ergen to argue that his proposed merger with satellite rival DirecTV will not be as terrible as it first seemed. The combined EchoStar-DirecTV, after all, will only have 17 million subscribers.) In addition to its cable assets, Comcast owns big chunks of cable networks including E! and QVC and a sports network that airs games of the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers teams. It owns those teams, too. (Complete ownership profile from Hoover's.) Of interest to Kansas City viewers is the fact that AT&T is the silent 50 percent joint owner of the local Time Warner Cable franchise. Once the merger goes through, Comcast, which already serves 100,000 customers in Independence, Olathe and other communities, will have a financial interest in practically every cable user in the KC metro area. It is not hard to foresee a swap here, a swap there, that will make either AOL or Comcast the area's sole provider of cable TV. Here's the official announcement and streaming video of the press conference from AT&T's Web site.
Wednesday, December 19
Dick Clark is suing the head of NARAS for "blacklisting" performers from appearing on the Grammys if they appear on his American Music Awards. NARAS describes this as "normal industry business practices." Personally, I'm all for anything that keeps us from being subjected to additional meaningless awards shows.
Two scheduling notes from the WB: (1) Beginning Jan. 4, the timeslots of freshman comedies "Maybe It's Me" and "Raising Dad" will switch. Now Bob Saget will lead into "Reba" and Fred Willard will lead out. (2) Encore episodes of "Angel" will lead into "Charmed" at 8 p.m. ET beginning Jan. 10 and continuing through February. In earlier moves, WB replaces low-rated "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" with double runs of "The Steve Harvey Show," then beginning Jan. 13 will air "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment" in that time period. Also, WB will air midseason's anticipated "Glory Days" at 9 Wednesdays, taking the place of "Felicity" which -- as it did last year -- will bow out during the winter and return in the spring with fresh episodes.
Kansas Citians who just had National Geographic Channel added to their Time Warner Cable systems (it's on Channel 76) will want to note an encore of "National Geographic Today Special Edition: Carrier at War," airing 6 p.m. Thursday. "Take an exclusive look inside the workings of the USS Carl Vinson -- the first American warship on station in the Arabian Sea after September 11 and the first to launch air strikes on Afghanistan. Meet a Navy pilot and experience what goes into a bombing mission from start to finish. And, be a part of the incredible coordination necessary to keep this gigantic machine running smoothly. Viewers will learn how the thousands on-board cope with the danger and stress of their everyday activities and how each person's role contributes to the success of each mission. "
Longtime TV Barn reader Jeff Hysen recently wrote me with a concern about Cartoon Network, which his sons watch. "There is a commercial that is frequently run for a World Trade Center commemorative coin. This commercial begins by showing footage of the WTC immediately after it was hit. This image is still horrific for anyone, especially a child. My children are well aware of the tragedy but don't need to be reminded of it whenever they want to watch, say, 'Dexter's Laboratory.' Someone at the Cartoon Network needs to use a little common sense and direct the advertiser to edit the ad."
I didn't recall seeing the ad, so I forwarded Jeff's e-mail to a Cartoon Network publicist, who contacted his network's sales department. Turns out the local cable operator in Silver Spring, Md., where Jeff lives, had sold the commercial time to the coin dealer. It was pulled off Cartoon Network immediately. The publicist said the sponsor had only been told the ad would appear on various popular but unspecified channels, and "appreciated our pointing out that it wasn't appropriate for certain networks that primarily serve kid audiences." The publicist added, "Please congratulate Jeff for proving once more that the individual viewer does have a voice about what is run on television." *** Reader Curt Alliaume, who keeps a fascinating web site called Game Shows '75 ÷ dedicated to the year when there were more game shows (19) on network TV than any other time ÷ has started a new Web site devoted to saving Regis Philbin's job as host of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." A heartless ABC executive recently suggested that "Millionaire" might not come back to prime time next fall, and if it did, it might come back with a different host. *** And this from charter reader Karla Robinson: "Why doesn't 'Entertainment Tonight' identify some of the product they featureÊas produced by their parent company, Paramount? I know that's a large number of programs and films coming under one giant Paramount-Blockbuster-Viacom corporate flag, but I get really tired of seeing 'ET' tout its own company's stuff ad nauseum. How many times do we really need to go behind the scenes at 'JAG'? By contrast, CNN has been pretty good about this since the Time Warner-AOL merger. "Back in the day, the show was actually informative. What the hell happened?" Probably the same thing that happened to critic Leonard Maltin movie reviews on 'ET,' which were actually critical.
On this day...in 1969, on "The Brady Bunch" Carol loses her voice. Crap, Christmas is ruined ... unless Cindy can either get help from Santa, or the demon living in the basement that Jan later sold her soul to in the show's final season.
Tuesday, December 18
AdCritic.com, the best single Web source for information about and video of current television commercials, has gone on hiatus.
On this day...in 1967, "Treasure Isle" makes its debut on ABC, becoming quite possibly the network's best game show ever played on a lagoon.
Monday, December 17
Pledge drives on PBS stations are never good, but the latest on KQED reached a new low as Jon Carroll writes in today's San Francisco Chronicle. The "Wrinkle Cure" special featuring Dr. Nicholas Perricone also aired on other PBS stations including New York's WNET and Boston's WGBH. KQED repeated the show over a dozen times between December 4th and 16th. What wasn't mentioned in the show or during the pledge breaks Perricone participated in was that the products he recommends and sells cost from $25 for 50 capsules to $45 for a half once bottle to as much as $120 for a six once bottle. And yet the Berkeley Wellness Newsletter article Carroll quotes from advises, "The best anti-wrinkle program is prevention: Stay out of the sun, wear sunscreen, use a moisturizer, and don't smoke...And try not to wrinkle your brow wondering how this infomercial found a place on publicly funded TV." Full disclosure: Carroll mentions me because I found that article and a quote from a USA Today article he also uses in the column. Good eye, Steve. The "Wrinkle Cure" merited a half-page story (not ad!) in the member magazine of KCPT, Kansas City's public TV station. Ewww.
Twas the week before Christmas
When we prematurely Unwrapped our new TiVos For Christmas comes early To the land of TV shows As you'll see in what follows! In this week's Picks to Click. (All times and channels local to KC.)
A new addition to the sideblog are links to the latest postings at our discussion board, tvbarn2. I'm fooling around with stylesheets to make the appearance look right on all popular browsers, no easy task. But at least the links work.
"I haven't been watching the late night talk shows on a regular basis," writes Brendan Joyce. "When did David Letterman start having his guests enter from stage right, rather than passing the band on the left?" Brendan's not the only one wondering about this, so I put the question to the one who sees all, knows all, Letterman expert Don Giller, who replied, "Technically, it's stage left; November 12."
TV Barn reader Fowler Jones writes,
"Your article about 'Millionaire' was very insightful. I started losing interest in the show after two changes were made to it. One was the proliferation of celebrity editions. At first it was cool, but then they started doing it every week. Also, the regular contestant editions that followed seemed flat. It doesn't seem as 'real' when celebrities are doing it, does it? Several readers have made similar comments about the celeb editions of "Millionaire" ÷ a short-term ratings grab with unforeseen long-term effects. So I guess I would amend my earlier piece to say that, no, ABC didn't drive this show into the ground, but it did take the wind out of its sails. I'm not sure if L.A. Times critic Howard Rosenberg was trying to file his column before vacation and didn't have time to look this up, but every episode of "24" ÷ not "some episodes," as he claims ÷ has been re-aired Fridays at 9. (Anthony Foglia replies in tvbarn2: "Actually, didn't one rerun air on Saturday night instead of Friday?" Oops, you're right!)
The only glitch, so far, has been Fox's decision to postpone the repeat of episode four by a week (the show didn't air an original episode in week five). So even a VCR klutz like Rosenberg can catch every episode. Not to mention the twice-weekly repeats of each episode on FX ÷ oh, no, Howard, don't tell me you forgot to pay your cable bill!
Lorne Michaels told Variety's Army Archerd Friday that "Saturday Night Live's" Colin Quinn will be host of his own series from New York, starting March 4. And on May 4, Michaels will executive produce "a giant, live, three-hour NBC special celebrating the network's 75th anniversary," says Archerd.
Remote Patrol: Cluck Cluck Jason Alexander's gig as poultry salesman has now lasted about a month longer than his gig as motivational guru "Bob Patterson." If only they had listened to the focus groups, ABC's "KFC Popcorn Chicken Salesman" would have given NBC's "ER" a run for its money. Not many people know that "ER" was originally set in a Pepperidge Farms Milano cookie factory, but test audiences thought the product placement was excessive. Still, they have wound up not only using them in all of the surgery scenes, and when her original double was unavailable as a standin for actress Kellie Martin.
On this day...in 1989, FOX gives viewers a sneak peak at its upcoming cartoon series with "The Simpsons Christmas Special," AKA "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." The regular series will make its debut January 14, 1990.
Sunday, December 16
On this day...in 1975, the newly divorced Ann Royer ... uh make that Ann Romano ... and her two daughters move into an apartment in her hometown of Indianapolis for a fresh start that they plan to take "One Day At A Time."
If there is an earlier local newscast in the country than Kansas City's new 4:30 a.m. report, I'd like to hear about it. This week the CBS affiliate KCTV launched its "early early show," a two-and-a-half vigil through the lonely night. It's the latest change at what was once considered the cushiest -- and most complacent -- TV station in town. I got up in the middle of the night on Wednesday and sat in on a broadcast at KCTV studios.
My favorite recent holiday special, "Olive, the Other Reindeer," is on Nickelodeon today at 4 p.m. and Friday at 9 p.m. It is also available on video. Drew Barrymore provides Olive's voice and there is music by Michael Stipe. It first aired on Fox in 1999. San Francisco's Noe Valley Voice profiled J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh who created the book the show is based on. They say they "were naive when it comes to the ugly monkey world of television." Their website is www.jotto.com.
I'll write more about "American Family" when it premieres on on January 23rd, but until then it this article in the Sunday New York Times tells the story of how PBS resurrected the show after CBS failed to pick it up for the 2000 season. It seems tv critics can make a difference. PBS President Pat Mitchell contacted Les Moonves after reading a column by Howard Rosenberg of the LA Times saying the show should be aired.
TV Barn archive
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