As far as I'm concerned, the five greatest scientific breakthroughs of the last quarter-century have been the TiVo, the iPhone, Ritz Toasted Chips, the Reach Access Flosser and the Breathe Right Strip. The Creamy Tomato Soup that they have in March at the Souplantation is a close runner-up.
I have Sleep Apnea, in part because my nose doesn't work so good. I sleep with a device called a CPAP machine. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure and basically, it's a thing that forces air into my nose at night so I get some. This is also a wonderful invention but it was invented in 1981 so it doesn't count on the above list. Anyway, what also helps my respiration is this thing called the Breathe Right® Nasal Strip.
There is a certain beauty in its simplicity. You slap one on and it fluffs your nostrils, allowing nasal passages to open...or something. I'm not really sure how it works; only that it works. I wear one to bed each night, then leave it on in the morning until it's time to leave the house or interact with others. I'd wear one all day if it wouldn't make people look at me with even odder expressions than they do now. (One time in Las Vegas, I forgot and walked around all day with one on. Took me a while to figure out the puzzled looks I got.)
They have several varieties and have just introduced a new, industrial-strength model that's supposed to do even more to clear nasal passages. I haven't tried it yet. In fact, I just signed up on this page to have them mail me a couple of free samples. I thought some of you might want to get some, too.
I get a few messages a week asking me about The Garfield Show, a new series which claims me as one of its producers...and I also write a lot of episodes and voice-direct 'em all.
The show is seen all over the world...and in America and a few other countries, it's on Cartoon Network. Initially, they would run one episode in the morning and rerun it in the afternoon. The morning airing has been doing okay in the ratings. The afternoon airing has been doing so well that they now run two half-hours there each day...and neither is a rerun of the morning show. They've also added us to the Saturday and Sunday lineups, although we're not airing at all over the forthcoming Martin Luther King Day weekend.
We did a first season of 26 episodes and they're now all in rotation there. I have no idea why some episodes seem to air every 72 hours and others turn up about once every three months. Divisions of Time-Warner work in mysterious ways.
We're currently in production on a second season of 26 more half-hours. Just when they'll be completed is another thing about which I have no idea. We just recorded voice tracks for episodes 9 and 10 of this batch...so it'll be a while. I'm told a DVD release may be announced one of these days, as well. And I think that covers everything folks are asking me. Hope you catch an episode or two and that you like what you catch.
TMZ is claiming that Leno has signed a deal to host an hour-long Tonight Show for the next year. Daily Beast is claiming that a settlement has been negotiated on O'Brien's NBC contract and that he'll receive a huge check and the right to go elsewhere. Even if these stories aren't true at the moment, they probably will be.
I'm a little surprised that this phase of the drama seems to be ending like this. I thought there was a good chance Conan would wring a sweet enough deal out of NBC to go along with a 12:05 start for The Tonight Show that he'd wind up staying. Apparently, he's even madder than some of us thought at losing 11:35...and NBC is pretty mad at him. This afternoon at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Dick Ebersol went out to deliver the NBC spin, which is that Conan just plain failed and was stubbornly refusing to fix what he [Ebersol] thought was wrong with the show.
For what it's worth, I think the ratings O'Brien was getting were lower than can be explained by weak lead-ins, lack of support, just getting his bearings, etc. There was something fundamental about his Tonight Show that wasn't connecting with viewers...but I still think he should have been given more time. Conan's a talented guy with a sharp support team and it's far from inconceivable that he could have turned things around. (One question that may or may not be answered: Jeff Zucker's getting about 98% of the heat for this decision. Did he really make it or was it a demand from affiliates who looked at the mess NBC had at 10 PM, looked at how much of Leno's audience Conan had lost, and said, "Fix this now...or else!"?)
Anyway, we seem to be down to the point where Leno, O'Brien, Letterman and Kimmel are all hurling cheapshots, some enormously childish but funny. Is it just me or is there something odd aboutt Conan and Dave accusing Jay of shoving aside the guy hosting The Tonight Show to get his job? Seems to me all three of those guys have at least attempted that at one time or another.
January 16, 2010
