Category Archives: TV

Did you watch the Lou Dobbs interview tonight on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart? Well, whether you did or not, watch the extended version on the show's website. It's a very interesting discussion…on a level one rarely sees on television. Mr. Dobbs comes off much saner, I think, than he ever has in any TV or radio segment I've seen…which is not to say I think he's right. I don't think the anger at Obama is a logical consequence of past actions. I think Mr. Stewart is correct that it's a ginned-up outrage (fanned by folks who think it'll drive votes their way) and a confusion of losing an election with tyranny.

But don't go by anything I'm saying here. Watch all three parts of the video, which you can do by going to the Daily Show website. I'd post a direct link to that particular video but these Comedy Central sites are all configured in a bizarre, user-unfriendly fashion. The URL for this one has errors in it so I can't link you but you should be able to find it on your own.

I like a lot of what Bill Maher has to say about politics, especially when he's talking about the kind of folks — politicians, pundits — that he comes into contact with due to his show and speaking engagements. It's when he gets into talking about nutrition and medicine that he goes all Orly Taitz on us…or maybe worse because Ms. Taitz, at least, has the value of being consistently and obviously wrong. Maher sometimes sounds like he knows what he's talking about with regard to diet and health…and if you can do that and you have a TV show, you can be dangerous.

He's posted a lengthy, rambling blog post about vaccination, trying to walk back some of the stuff he's said about vaccinations, particularly the current flu shots. He says we need to have a discussion about this kind of thing and he's right. I had mine with my doctor. If you have a physician you trust, have one with that person. Don't listen to a professional comedian…or anyone else on TV, for that matter.

Just because someone can get on television doesn't mean they know what they're talking about. Years ago when I worked on a so-called reality show (I say "so-called" because nothing is less realistic than a reality show), I learned about Quote Whores. That's the industry term for them. They are, basically, people with some credentials who'll say darn near any damn thing you want if it'll get them on television. Today, if you and I were producing a show with even a modest audience and we wanted to have someone with a degree and impressive credentials come on and say that eating Tootsie Roll Pops will regenerate a severed limb, we could find one. We could get a doctor or some reasonable approximation of one to come in say that for our cameras.

And of course, even when someone who does know what they're talking about says it on television, that's generic advice they're giving out. It's not meant to apply to you, in particular. Just most people. And you're not most people. You're you. Take a look at your driver's license if you don't believe me.

You may not want to read the Maher piece. If you do, please remember that I'm not linking to it because I think he's right about most things. I just think it's interesting that he's dug himself into a bit of a hole here and he's throwing dirt in all directions, trying to get himself out. In that sense, I guess I respect the guy a lot more than the ones who dig themselves into one of those holes, realize it…and think they can get out by pressing on, trying to shovel their way to China.

The previous entry made me think of this: The Complete Get Smart (5 seasons + extras on 25 DVDs) has been marked down by Time-Life from over $200 to $150. But I saw it yesterday at my local Costco for $114.95 and Amazon has it for even less. If you already bought it for full price…sorry about that.

TV Land is having a Marlo Thomas Film Festival for the next month or two, not only on the air but also on its website. This weekend on the channel, they're running what they consider the best episodes of That Girl, and you can also watch them uncut on the site for the next month or so. I've found that these shows don't hold up as well as some others but your mileage may vary. Here's what should be a direct link to the first episode. They also have some of the special features that are on the new That Girl DVD.

I'm even less impressed with Free To Be…You And Me, the award-winning 1974 special that Ms. Thomas produced and starred in, and which can also be watched over at the TV Land site. I agree with its message — that women should feel free to aspire to any job a male can do short of sperm donor — but the presentation of that self-evident truth struck me as pandering and overkill. Perhaps it needed to be said in such an obvious, overwrought manner but you'd like to think otherwise.

While you're over at the TV Land site, check out some of the clips from other shows they have up. But especially check out the one you can reach by clicking this link. It should take you to three and a half minutes of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding on The Flip Wilson Show. Nobody funnier. (Bob and Ray, I mean. There were plenty of people funnier than Flip Wilson.)

Some time ago here, I recommended a visit to the online Archive of American Television interviews, a series of oral histories that have been shot on video and which are now available on Google Video. The item I posted yesterday about the Emerson College and their Oral History of Comedy project brought some reminders (the first from Trevor Kimball) that more videos are being posted all the time from that other, also-worthy venture. The TV Academy is interviewing everyone who'll sit for them who was important in the world of teevee.

The present list of what's up on Google for viewing is available in the right-hand margin of the project's weblog. If you can't find a dozen videos there you want to watch, you just aren't interested in the history of television. The next one I'm going to tackle is the one with my occasional employers, Sid and Marty Krofft. Sid especially has had one of the most colorful, fascinating careers in show business and if he tells some of the stories he's told me over the years, that's an interview not to miss.

The Archive of American Television interviews are very long. For example, Carroll O'Connor's (which was recently posted) runs eight parts for a total of 3 hours and 47 minutes. That's a lot of Carroll O'Connor. You might want to experience these videos the way I do, which is to start one going, minimize the window it's in and then do other work on my computer, allowing the audio to run, radio-style. I should also caution you that a few chapters of these interviews seem to not have made their way onto Google Video…at least not in a way that a search will turn them up. At the moment, I can't find Part One of Larry Gelbart or Part Five of Milton Berle.

That's about all I have to say about this. So I'll just add that I wish someone was doing this with the pioneers of the comic book business.

Earlier this year, I got semi-hooked on the NBC game show, Deal or No Deal. My interest went up and down but I generally enjoyed the show and managed to TiVo and watch every episode. I was struck by how its simple premise created such interesting scenarios, by the expert hosting of Howie Mandel and by the skill with which the producers made the thing work.

And — oh, yeah — there were also those 26 beautiful models. They mattered.

Yesterday was the close of Deal or No Deal's season premiere week. It aired multiple times with the top prize cranked up incrementally to six million clams. They gave away a lot of money on these shows and there were some genuine moments of tension…and once again, I found my interest coming and going…but mostly going. I think some of it's the repetition and some of it's the time-wasting moments. Early in each game, you have the contestant struggling with an offer in the low-to-mid five figures…and we all know they aren't going to take it. You can pretty safely fast-forward from the first Banker Offer to around the fourth or fifth without missing anything except some agony that is either bogus or needless.

I also find my interest impaired by my having attended a taping of the show, as reported here. Reading back over that post, I think I was too nice about how long they kept us there, how uncomfortable it all was, etc. The experience probably made me even more conscious of how "pasted together" (edited) the show is and I find myself looking at allegedly spontaneous moments, noticing edits and wondering, "Gee, wonder what actually happened there."

I still have the TiVo set to record each edition and for the time being, I'll still be watching. But unless something new starts happening, I think the ol' "skip ahead" button will be getting a good workout.

Lastly, a question: My understanding is that the offers from "The Banker" are calculated via a formula. The silhouetted gent you see on screen actually does nothing. Instead, as each case is opened and its amount is revealed, that number is entered into a computer program. When it comes time for a Banker Offer, one of the producers consults a screen which gives him a limited range and he can decide on any amount within those parameters. What he decides is relayed to Mr. Mandel on the phone and that's how the offers arise. My question is whether anyone has figured out the formula. There are a number of computer games that let you play Deal or No Deal on your computer or Gameboy or PlayStation3 or Waring Blender or whatever you have. Has anyone formulated a program that lets you calculate banker offers the same way the producers have them calculated? Just wondering.

Speaking of money, it's been a while since I posted one of these…

We mentioned here what a good job ventriloquist Ronn Lucas did on the Jerry Lewis Telethon and we said, and I quote myself: "David Letterman is about to do a week of ventriloquists on his show, probably not because he likes that kind of act but because he thinks they'll be easy to make fun of. I hope they'll book Ronn and I hope Dave lets him just do what does so well." Ronn's on tonight's show, probably with his reptilian friend, Scorch.

Here, as sorta promised, is the Get Smart promo poster drawn by Jack Davis. This is the only decent likeness of Don Adams I can ever recall seeing anyone drawing. For a couple years there, NBC would put out a set each year with four promotional posters of shows from their schedule. The 1965 set, which included this one, is very hard to find, in part because one of the other posters is of Bonanza and it was painted by the great James Bama.