Saturday, August 30, 2008

It's Jerry Time!

The annual Jerry Lewis Telethon is upon us and once more, I'm confused as to its length. This year, I seem to be able to pick it up on three different channels on my DirecTV feed. All times given below are Pacific, on account of that's where I am.

KCAL Channel 9 is running it from 6 PM Sunday night until 5 PM on Monday. That's 23 hours.

WGN, which is in Chicago I think, airs the show from 8 PM Sunday night until 1 PM on Monday when they stop for a Cubs-Astros game. They're then scheduled to come back at 4 PM for another hour. That's 18 hours of Jerry and his friends and his kids and his tote board.

WDCW in Washington, DC starts at 6 PM Sunday night and airs it 'til 3:30 PM the following day. That's 21 and a half hours.

The WDCW feed may be the most interesting because according to the official MDA site, the whole telethon is 21 and a half hours. This, of course, raises the question of why KCAL is running 23 hours of it. I believe the answer is that even the 21.5 hour version contains some hours that are repeated, and that KCAL is repeating more of them than most cities in the Love Network.

Co-hosts, taking over while Jerry is napping, will include Norm Crosby, Tom Bergeron, Jann Carl, Nancy O'Dell, Alison Sweeney, Ace Young and Billy Gilman. Tony Orlando is hosting the New York end of things and Ed McMahon, complete with broken neck and financial problems, is back to anchor and announce. The MDA site does not list any of the performers but I have a hunch that they'll include most of the acts currently playing Vegas plus Maureen McGovern. If you hear that Charlie Callas is making an appearance, drop me an e-mail.

Tune in. Donate whatever you can spare. And if you're thinking of stiffing them, just remember: Jerry's packing heat.

• Posted at 5:44 PM · LINK

Saturday Morning

I've been watching CNN's coverage of Hurricane Gustav, which is currently at Category 4 strength and almost certain to do a lot of damage to someone somewhere.

It makes me wish there'd been more mention at the Democratic Convention of Katrina. There are still people out there who I suspect have filed that one away in the "Act of God" file, denying how much of that disaster was man-made. It's arguable how much of what went wrong was because the levees that were built in and around New Orleans were shoddy and inadequate, and how much was due to inept rescue and response. Clearly though, a lot of people didn't do their jobs and as a result, lives and homes were lost.

Gustav is looking real scary. I sure hope someone learned something from Katrina and was able to apply it.

• Posted at 10:46 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

One week in 1968, Jerry Lewis was guest-hosting The Tonight Show and he caused a ruckus. There had recently been some item in the news about an incident of racial segregation in Mississippi, and Mr. Lewis made a remark that went roughly like this: "I was just taking a cross-country flight and I fulfilled a lifelong dream by going to the bathroom over Mississippi."

Obviously not a great joke...and the next day, Lewis found himself the target of protests. Mississippi officials denounced him, the NBC affiliate in Mississippi announced it would not air The Tonight Show for the rest of the week, and movie theaters down there yanked his most recent film. (Appropriately enough, it was a movie called The Big Mouth.)

Our embedded clip is the first four or so minutes from the program the following night. Jerry comes out, sings a song and then does a quick apology for the offending jibe. As I recall, he was slammed a bit more in the following week but the storm blew over and was forgotten. There still, however, are some folks who haven't forgiven him for The Big Mouth. Here's the clip...

• Posted at 12:22 AM · LINK

August 31, 2008 • Current • August 29, 2008