Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Comic Artist Website of the Day

For longer than he'd probably like me to mention, Gene Colan has been producing magnificent comic art — for years in the pages of DC, Marvel and other comics; more recently in commissions. You can see a lot of both, as well as wonderful interviews and history over at The Gene Colan Website. Spend some time browsing the gallery of drawings he's done for his many fans lately...and make sure you see his recent drawing of Captain America, the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch beating the crap out of Saddam Hussein. (Also, take a peek at the drawing of Dr. Doom where Gene, God love him, forgot to draw one of the villain's legs.) Wonderful work.

• Posted at 8:38 PM · LINK

Hooray for Captain Spaulding

Congrats to Daniel Frank on one solid year of weblogging over at his site. When you get done here each day, that's a good place to go next.

• Posted at 8:31 PM · LINK

Still more on SNL

My pal Paul Harris, who soars on radio station KTRS in St. Louis and on his website agrees with me that the story of NBC being fined for Sinead O'Connor's protest is so much hooey...

There is no way the FCC fined NBC $2.5mil for the Sinead O'Connor incident. The only time the FCC fines a broadcaster over content is when it is deemed to have violated the obscenity standard — vague as that is, Sinead's ripping up the Pope's picture doesn't come close to qualifying. Hey, they weren't even fined when Charles Rocket dropped the F-bomb!

Also, the network wouldn't have been fined, the affiliates would, since they're the ones licensed and regulated for content by the Commission. While NBC does have a division full of owned-and-operated stations, I (like you) am positive this fine was never levied against them or any other NBC affiliated station.

One more thing that I'm sure you know but your readers may need to be reminded of: the FCC does not monitor all broadcasts in this country for content or anything else. They have neither the staff nor the desire to do so (although they do have field agents checking technical requirements on an infrequent basis). The only way the Commission takes action is if there is a verifiable complaint from a viewer/listener, which must include an accurate transcript or recording of the supposedly offending segment. Then there's an investigation, the station is offered a chance to rebut, etc. etc. etc. I know that there are many Americans who believe the FCC should revoke licenses or fine stations because they didn't like what they themselves saw or heard, but it's rarely done, and absolutely never without details from a complainant.

Even then, tearing up the Pope's picture wouldn't even get mentioned in the FCC coffee break room, because instead they're busy dealing with an AM daytimer somewhere in Alabama that refuses to sign off at sunset and is overmodulating its carrier and interfering with another station's signal. Now that's a problem the Commission can and does sink its teeth into!

Indeed. I have also been told by a few folks that contrary to all accounts — including the recollections of both myself and my friend who was working on the show at the time, Nora Dunn did appear on the episode following the Andrew Dice Clay appearance. That would have been the last show of that season and her last show as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. One of those who wrote — David Goehner — says that she had almost nothing to do in it, and that in the "curtain calls" at the end, Jan Hooks held her hand in an emotional way. I don't remember that but we can check. That episode (hosted by Candice Bergen) reruns in the NBC Up All Night slot this coming Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Speaking of the confusion over which day a late night show is on — an issue that seems to matter to me and no one else — David asks when the clay animation episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien airs. NBC is saying Thursday...but of course, in most time zones, the episode we think of as the "Thursday night" episode actually airs at 12:35 AM Friday morning. That's the case here: It's the episode of Conan's program that airs right after Thursday night's Tonight Show. Some day, network promotions will get in sync with how we all program our VCRs and TiVos.

• Posted at 8:15 PM · LINK

More Deep Thoughts

Here's more on the ever-increasing evidence that former deputy counsel Fred Fielding was the famed snitch, Deep Throat. One would think that if he wasn't, he would not only deny it but get Bob Woodward to deny it, as Woodward did with regard to Alexander Haig. Let us see if that occurs.

• Posted at 3:41 PM · LINK

Disney Poohs Again

Disney's lost another battle in the great Winnie the Pooh war. Here are the details.

• Posted at 3:27 PM · LINK

K-K-K-Katie...

Talk about a "sweeps" stunt that worked: Katie Couric's turn guest-hosting The Tonight Show last night yielded a 7.1 rating. That's probably way above what even the most optimistic NBC folks expected. Letterman had a 3.9 and Nightline had a 3.1. That's within those shows' normal fluctuation, confirming the theory that the late night shows don't really take audience away from each other. That is to say, when Dave gets a high rating, it doesn't mean he hijacked a lot of Leno viewers but that more people stayed up late that night.

I thought Ms. Couric did an okay job thanks to strong support from guests and written material. I'm still watching (in increments) Leno hosting The Today Show. I'm about halfway through and he seems pleasant enough — but I can't believe anyone not on the Fox Network would interview Colin Powell and not ask, "So...where are all those Weapons of Mass Destruction you told the U.N. we'd definitely pinpointed?"

• Posted at 12:47 PM · LINK

An Oliver Twist

This amused me. I was reading a recent transcript of an episode of the CNN show, Crossfire, and I spotted this line...

BETSY HART, COLUMNIST: I'm so delighted my liberal friends, Oliver Washington, (ph) are willing to make a value judgment about a consensual adult activity.

I didn't see the show but I have a hunch that what she said was, "...my liberal friends all over Washington..."

• Posted at 10:23 AM · LINK

Frebergian Delay

Stan Freberg's Manhattan gig — performing at Feinstein's at the Regency — has had to be rescheduled again. I'll let you know here when I hear of a new date. It'll be worth waiting for.

• Posted at 10:21 AM · LINK