April 2009 Archives

"Celebrity Apprentice" Heavyweight Diva Duel: Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Beeyotch

April 24, 2009 11:02 AM

Cain vs. Abel. Frasier vs. Ali. And now, in this corner, another duel for the ages: Joan Rivers vs. Annie Duke.

NBC's Celebrity Apprentice has been providing some of the most jaw-dropping television of the season. And, I'm happy to say, it's not over yet. Last week was the best, most riveting, most unbelievable episode of Donald Trump's TV show ever broadcast -- and the two main combatants, comedienne Rivers and poker champion Duke, both survived to fight another day...

This season of Celebrity Apprentice (Sundays at 9 p.m. ET) started with larger-than-life characters being eliminated quickly: Tom Green for being too goofy, Dennis Rodman for being too inebriated and surly, Andrew Dice Clay for being too... Andrew Dice Clay. But those were undercards to this season's championship bout.

"I'm going to crush you, Joan," Annie Duke informed her rival, when the two of them agreed to be project managers of their respective teams on a charity auction task. Nice talk. But it was said with a smile. And in any event, it was a lot nicer than when Rivers, in the boardroom after her loss, compared Duke to Adolf Hitler. Really.

"She does seem nice to me," Trump said of Duke, after hearing Rivers toss some insults her way.

"So does Hitler at Buchenwald," Rivers shoots back.

It was such a stunner that both of Trump's boardroom lieutenants last week -- former Celebrity Apprentice winner Piers Morgan and Trump's daughter, Ivanka -- reacted with stunned double-takes. "Hitler?" Morgan asked. "Have you ever been compared to Hitler before?" Ivanka asked Duke.

Morgan was equally thrown by Melissa Rivers' constant defense of her mother's actions and comments, and criticisms of Duke, even though the younger Rivers was on Duke's team. "I find this dynamic fascinating," Morgan admitted, challenging Melissa Rivers' conduct. "You would speak up and knife your leader to suck up to your mum."

Morgan was right on the money questioning that dynamic. So was Ivanka Trump, who has matured, since first coming aboard as one of her father's TV lieutenants, into a very poised and precise presence on the show. When she asked Joan Rivers about her feelings if Joan outlasts her own daughter on the show, Joan said it would be okay, so long as Melissa lost fairly rather than being thrown under a bus.

"If I were thrown under the bus," Ivanka replied with a cool, knowing smile, "my father would be disappointed in me for allowing myself to get in the way of that bus."

Great stuff. This far into the game, there are two official teams (KOTU, with Joan Rivers and Clint Black, and Athena, with Annie Duke, Melissa Rivers, former Playboy Playmate Brande Roderick and Jesse James). There's also a third, unofficial team: the Rivers running through it.

Donald Trump's firing decisions, while seeming capricious on occasion, always make sense in the larger picture. And because he IS in charge, I have little doubt of this season's outcome. When you have competitors as naturally vehement towards one another as Joan Rivers and Annie Duke have grown to be, they almost have to reach the final. Otherwise, any other climax would be more of an anti-climax.

But if it goes to a Duke vs. Rivers title card, what an ending that will be, and what a ride until then. "She's a crazy bitch," Annie Duke said of Rivers afterward. And Rivers, on her own Twitter mini-blog, posted the following: "I just compared Annie to Hitler and I feel terrible. My apologies to Hitler."

Melissa Rivers, who should have gone home weeks ago, eventually will be fired, which should make for two levels of drama. And if the final task mirrors the celebrity auction, where Duke's wealthy friends flew in to support her while Rivers saved her team's presentation but raised little money, this contest could well get down to, instead of how many people you know, how many friends you have.

For the record: My money's on Annie Duke -- to go all the way, and to win this thing, deservedly. She's come off as smart, determined and charming. Both generations of Rivers, by contrast, bring to mind three very different adjectives: stubborn, abrasive and co-dependent.

Also for the record: Donald Trump, with this season of Celebrity Apprentice, already is in the winner's circle. And why not? His show is better than ever, and his daughter radiates beauty and intelligence in equal proportions.

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TV Worth Watching Begs: Networks, Please, Renew These Shows

April 23, 2009 7:46 AM

Last year at about this time, ABC renewed Pushing Daisies, one of the best shows in its entire lineup -- then yanked it prematurely once the new season began. This year, with the announcements of next year's prime-time schedules only weeks away, there's still time for the networks to make some smart moves -- and some TV-improving renewals -- and, this time, stick with them. But will they?

Some good news is obvious already. NBC struck a two-year extension on the deal with DirecTV to share costs on the production of Friday Night Lights, so we'll have that fabulous show for a few more reasons, with Coach Taylor reassigned to a much lower-rent high school operation. That's terrific -- even if, by the time the episodes get to NBC, they're slightly used goods.

Fringe, on Fox, is a sure bet to return, and a quality show that deserves it. And one of the best new shows of the season, The Mentalist on CBS, also is by far the most popular among all new series, so its renewal is assured. Quality, in this case, has risen to the top of the ratings -- but that doesn't always happen. Quality TV shows, like orchids, can be hothouse flowers that need a lot of nurturing and patience.

Each network, right now, has some shows on the bubble that are likely to develop more in a sophomore season, or be better than most other things coming down the cost-crunched pipeline. If, that is the networks exercise taste and patience -- neither of which, of course, is in strong supply these days.

At ABC, that includes new shows Better Off Ted and Castle, and the still-delightful Scrubs, pulled from NBC's Death Row this season.

At CBS, The New Adventures of Old Christine is such a funny show, the only reason I can imagine CBS might not renew it is that no one at the network's Black Rock headquarters is actually watching it.

At NBC, two veteran shows, My Name Is Earl and Medium, aren't as tired as they should be after this much time, and have earned the right for another year.

And at Fox, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has presented enough inventive surprises and twists to keep the story going. If Fox doesn't renew the show, some cable network should.

But there are two shows TV Worth Watching is begging to see come back -- even if rescued by another network. NBC's Life is one. Fox's Dollhouse is another.

Life, staring Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi, is almost certainly a goner at NBC. The 10 p.m. Leno decision saw to that, since there are few places to put Life, and its ratings are too modest to argue for its return by any measure other than quality.

Yet the show and the performances are so good, I hate to see it go. The season finale -- which could well be the series finale -- was unexpected and understated enough to provide a haunting coda to the year. But I want more. This is actually the kind of show that would work on Fox (quirky character in the lead) or CBS (self-contained murders, cleverly solved) equally well. Someone, please, let Life live.

Then there's Dollhouse. The latest Joss Whedon series hasn't done that well in the Friday night limbo slot where Fox stuck it, and isn't a good bet for renewal. But last week, the return of Prison Break drew significantly fewer viewers in the same time slot, especially among the younger demographic, so maybe the executives at Fox -- smart and tasteful ones, as TV executives go -- will rethink, and renew.

That would be wonderful, because Dollhouse really kicked into a higher gear the last several episodes, and a second season would be sure to mature significantly. Season two was when Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel deepened and blossomed, and Fox never let Firefly get to a second season. Please, please, don't make the same mistake with Dollhouse.

Or, if Fox lets it go, someone else should pick it up. These shows shouldn't die prematurely, as Daisies did.

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DirecTV Makes Two More Brilliant TV Acquisitions: "Oz" and "Deadwood"

April 22, 2009 10:14 AM

Since most broadcast networks seem to be abandoning quality, the field is wide open for a competing network to embrace it. Satellite's DirecTV is doing just that, and has just added two more champion thoroughbreds to its stable: the first off-HBO telecasts of Tom Fontana's Oz and David Milch's Deadwood.

Starting May 31, DirecTV 101 Network -- which already has kept NBC's Friday Night Lights alive and is about to present never-before-seen episodes of CBS's Smith and ABC's Eyes -- announced Wednesday it is presenting unedited, uninterrupted episodes of Oz and Deadwood as a weekly double feature. In HD. From start to finish.

Oz, the prison drama that taught the TV industry what the freedom of cable could mean when applied to a drama series by a visionary and maverick writer-producer, has never been repeated elsewhere since its original, pre-Sopranos HBO run. Deadwood is in the midst of a rerun cycle on one of HBO's subsidiary networks, but this is the first time it, too, will be offered to non-HBO subscribers.

Both series are fabulous. Deadwood, that brutal Shakepearean Western, was killed one off or two years too early by HBO, while Oz may have gone on one year too late -- but both series are unforgettable, unique examples of quality TV. There has been no other series quite like Oz, or quite like Deadwood, before or since. And reruns are fun, because since-familiar faces keep popping up, like Kristen Bell on Deadwood, just before she starred in Veronica Mars.

Presenting them both, and as a package, is DirecTV's way of saying it's very, very serious about establishing itself as television's premier Quality TV franchise.

The only down side is that Oz and Deadwood are being shown beginning Sunday nights at 9 ET, which pits these classic episodes against fresh product by both HBO and Showtime. Deadwood and Oz may have drawn more weekly viewers on a different, slower night -- Friday or Saturday, perhaps -- but with availability at other times during the week, and on DirecTV On Demand, real-time time slots don't matter as much as they once did.

But to DirecTV, at least, quality does. Hooray for our side.

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"The Cougar" on TV Land: What's Wrong with This Picture?

April 14, 2009 6:11 PM

Posted Wednesday:

Tonight at 10 ET, TV Land presents the premiere of a new reality dating show called The Cougar, starring a 40-year-old single mother of four who works her way through a gaggle of guys in their 20s, searching for true love.

On TV Land? As Seth Meyers might ask, "Really?!?"

If the question is "When, exactly, did TV Land fall out of love with television, and completely lose its mission statement and its way?" -- well, the answer is tonight, with The Cougar...

The Cougar is no more appropriate a show for TV Land than it would be for Animal Planet. There, at least, the title would fit in, even if the content would not.

TV Land was created to cherish and celebrate quality TV -- to keep video memories and legacies alive and have fun with how much fun TV can be. It wasn't created to add to the pile of instantly forgettable TV flotsam and jetsam.

Perhaps it's more irony than coincidence that at the very same time on satellite TV tonight, DirecTV 101 Network is presenting old and never-before-televised episodes of Smith, a 2006 TV series canceled prematurely by CBS.

DirecTV is the network that has helped keep NBC's Friday Night Lights alive with a co-production deal, and has begun to collect and present other underappreciated quality TV series from recent years: Wonderland, Eyes, and so on. Clearly, DirecTV is banking on quality as a lure for viewers, just as Trio used to.

Why is DirecTV going where TV Land no longer cares to tread?

It's astounding how little TV is doing to preserve and present its own glorious history. TV Land barely counts these days -- in prime time, it's pretty much Andy Griffith and Bill Cosby, period (great talents, and great shows, but not to the exclusion of all else) -- and Nick at Nite's idea of vintage quality TV is George Lopez. No kidding.

Well, if anyone out there in TV land -- the larger cable and satellite universe, not just that network -- wants to take TV seriously, here's a free suggestion:

Do it right.

Think along the lines of Masterpiece Theatre, with a well-informed host to present each program, or Inside the Actors Studio, with a guest who can shed light on the shows by providing personal memories and anecdotes.

Ideally, run the programs unedited and uninterrupted, the way Turner Classic Movies does with its films. And run them without speeding them up or chopping them up, as Nick at Nite, TBS and TV Land do ad infinitum, and ad nauseum. Or, if you must retain ads within as well as between offerings, do so in their original act-break placements, and expand time slots so you don't have to trim content from the programs.

Present the shows in imaginative ways. Showcase, for example, an entire evening's content from a given year, including a network newscast. Or showcase recently unearthed TV treasures -- for example, why hasn't the original, just-rediscovered Studio One production of 12 Angry Men, starring Robert Cummings, been shown yet on television, for the first time in half a century?

Where, oh where, are such hard-to-find TV series as The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, with Blair Brown and David Strathairn? Where are He & She and Ernie Kovacs? The Defenders and Hal Holbrook's The Senator?

From public TV, where are The Great American Dream Machine, American Short Story and American Playhouse?

Where's That Was the Week That Was? Or East Side, West Side, with George C. Scott? And where are the classic TV movies and miniseries, such as Duel, Trilogy of Terror and Danger UXB?

You, I;'m sure, haver your own wish lists, and I'd love to hear them.

But for now, regarding vintage television on TV as we now know it, where is the quality? Where is the taste? Where is the perspective?

Who cares? Who needs it?

Here comes The Cougar!

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STUDENT BLOG #1: A Review, and Defense, of "Wrestlemania 25"

April 14, 2009 10:23 AM

While working on the book, I've had several professional TV critics and reporters as guest writers. Today, as an experiment, I'm presenting an amateur. But an informed one.

Since I'm now teaching TV full-time at Rowan University, I thought I'd give a student or two a chance each term to write a review from his or her perspective, on something aimed squarely at the youth demographic. The first of these is a subject that always claims one or two passionate students per term: TV wrestling.

I asked (dared?) Peter Gilgiotti, one of my students, to explain and defend his passion. He agreed, and chose the pay-per-view event Wrestlemania 25 as his subject. Here is his review...

Wrestlemania 25, With Mickey Rourke

By Peter Gigliotti

The 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania was a good show that everyone should see. There were two matches that EVERYONE needs to see.

The first of these matches was Chris Jericho vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, and Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. This match was a showcase for superstars both young and old. I remember wondering, at prior pay-per-view events, what would happen if two wrestlers from different eras went up against one another. This match, during which Jericho beat all three veteran wrestlers, probably was the closest I will ever get to my answer.

As if that weren't enough, Mickey Rourke was in attendance for the event. Rourke and Jericho have been going back and forth on shows like Larry King Live about getting into a match. The closest thing to an in-the-ring Rourke/Jericho "duel" occurred after Jericho's match against Piper and company, when Jericho saw the star of The Wrestler in the audience at ringside.

Jericho called Rourke into the ring to face him like a man. Rourke obliged, and after some posturing, caught Jericho with a left hook, decking him with a single punch. Rourke then posed with Ric Flair, which was a great moment for a fan of The Wrestler, and of pro wrestling in general.

As good as that match was, the show-stopping match featured The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. That match had many "oh my god" moments, and that was only in the first ten minutes. The pin attempts were all close and the action was fast paced. If I got this down correctly, there were 14 pin attempts (including the one used to win), seven finishing moves used, and a broken camera.

This is one of those matches you have to see to believe. I have seen many matches from all over the world. These matches span from the 1970s to today. I can honestly say that this is the greatest match I have seen, ever. Even if you aren't a fan of pro wrestling, watch this match and it may change your mind.

---

Peter Gigliotti is a junior Radio/TV/ Film major at Rowan University. He is the creator and writer of The 450 Splash, a professional wrestling blog. For a more in depth analysis, you can read his full review at www.450splash.wordpress.com.

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What Do Jon Stewart and Benjamin Franklin Have in Common? Or Stephen Colbert and Will Rogers?

April 13, 2009 8:04 AM

Today, instead of writing, I'm linking -- to an impressively well-reported essay on Comedy Central Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart, and his place in history.

Not just cable history, or TV history... but history. (Yes, Virginia, there was history before television.)

And I'd love the article, published in Sunday's Cleveland Plain Dealer by TV critic Mark Dawidziak, even if I weren't one of the people quoted. Read on for a link to the story, and more...

Dawidziak's story is called "Jon Stewart Blurs the Line Between Jester and Journalist." Read the full article by clicking HERE.

Then, if you're still in the mood, here's a link to a story I wrote for the Boston Phoenix in 2007, on Stewart's Comedy Central cohort, Stephen Colbert -- a story called Comedy Rambo. Read that one by clicking HERE. And its sidebar, which links Colbert to everyone from Will Rogers to (couldn't help it) Pat Paulsen, by clicking HERE.

The central thesis of all these pieces: These two humorists, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, definitely are to be taken seriously.

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Three New Thursday TV Shows, No New Thursday Triumphs

April 8, 2009 8:24 PM

Three new shows premiere tonight, with little cause for celebration. NBC's Parks and Recreation, with Amy Poehler, may develop into something worthwhile, but it's disappointingly derivative. NBC's Southland is even more disappointing, and even more derivative -- and Harper's Island, on CBS, is a bloody mess.

Harper's Island, at 10 ET, is designed as a hybrid of Agatha Christie mysteries and Saw-style torturama movies. It's a mutation that doesn't take -- and even though Harper's Island is envisioned as a miniseries, and designed to unspool with weekly murders until the killer is revealed in July, this series deserves a quick kill.

If NBC lopped off Chopping Block after a single telecast, and CBS dumped Secret Talents of the Stars after one installment, then Harper's Island, too, can leave the airwaves without proving an ending. Sometimes, disappearance is more satisfying than closure, and this is one of those times.

It's not that there isn't a cast member or two who rises above the rest. Cameron Richardson from Point Pleasant, as Chloe, sparkles enough that when she's threatened with death by drowning in the pilot, you hope you haven't seen the last of her. For most of the other characters, and for this series itself, death can't come quickly enough.

It has none of the style of a Christie mystery, and none of the clever writing. Without characters to care about, or stories to draw you in, Harper's Island offers no reason to watch. CBS expects this to be a new way to lure viewers. My guess: It's a new way to lose them.

Southland, premiering at 10 ET on NBC, is much less repugnant. It's just so familiar, it's boring. Benjamin McKenzie, who played Ryan on The O.C., plays a rookie cop on his first day on the force. He's a privileged young man diving into an altruistic job and mixing with common folk. It's the flip side of his O.C. character, but exactly the same as Noah Wyle's Carter character on E.R. -- like Southland, a show with John Wells as executive producer.

This follow-the-rookie approach is nothing new: It was used on St. Elsewhere 25 years ago. But St. Elsewhere pushed the envelope when it did it. Southland is just recycling, and not very dynamically. Some of its teach-the-rookie speeches are laughably over the top, and so are many of the situations and the characters populating them. Nothing original here - and nothing expected to last past fall, when Jay Leno takes over the time slot.

Finally, there's Parks and Recreation, at 8:30 ET. By default, it's the best of the bunch, but it has quite a way to go. Amy Poehler is a proven comic actress, of course, but all of the insistent claims by the cast and creators of this show that it's not like The Office are, in a word, absurd. This couldn't be more like The Office, in tone and execution, unless it were about a rival Pennsylvania paper company.

Parks and Recreation may grow and find its own voice. At least one promo for a future show, in which Poehler's Leslie Knope is stalked by a raccoon indoors, made me laugh. Unfortunately, nothing in tonight's pilot did, not once. I was hoping for more, and expecting it, too.

But I'll keep watching Parks and Recreation, in hopes that it improves. Southland has lost me already -- and the folks behind Harper's Island should be happy Fox has televised at least one installment of Osbournes Reloaded.

That way, Harper's may not end the year as the Worst Show of 2009.

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FX's "Rescue Me" Returns -- Finally, and Brilliantly

April 7, 2009 10:03 AM

The FX drama series Rescue Me, starring Denis Leary as a haunted New York firefighter, has been gone from TV so long, it makes The Sopranos look like a poster boy for prime-time promptness. FX even presented five-minute "mini-sodes" of Rescue Me in the interim, just to remind viewers of what they were missing.

Well, miss no longer. After a hiatus of hour-long episodes that stretches back to 2007, Rescue Me is back, starting tonight at 10 ET. Back, and brilliant.

Denis Leary, who stars as Tommy Gavin, and co-producer Peter Tolan have created a series that started off impressively in 2004, and truly has gotten better and more intense every year. The characters, by now, are fully rounded, even if most of them are, in their own ways, fully certifiable. And watching them, whether they're joking about genitalia or talking seriously about Ground Zero, is just wonderful.

This season begins with lots going on, but there's one element that soars above all others. Michael J. Fox guest stars as Dwight, the new boyfriend of Tommy's ex-wife, Janet -- and the scenes between the two of them are as full of sparks as the firefighting scenes. They're amazing together, expressing an instant mutual dislike. And as good as it is to have Rescue Me back, it's even better to have Fox around again.

Then there's the subplot about an author visiting the firehouse to research a book on 9/11 -- an excuse for many of the characters, including Tommy, to either verbalize or avoid their individual angst. At times, Rescue Me is one of the most dramatic shows on television. At other times, it's one of the funniest, and often makes me laugh out loud. Really laugh. And, really, out loud.

And then, finally, there are the women -- Andrea Roth as Janet, Callie Thorne and Gina Gershon as two of the women in Tommy's life, and plenty more. Put it this way: On this show, the fires aren't the hottest things around.

What a show. What a treat. And what a wait -- but it's over, finally. Dive in.

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With HBO's "In Treatment" and Showtime's "United States of Tara," TV is Great Therapy

April 5, 2009 10:02 AM

HBO's In Treatment begins its second season just as Showtime's United States of Tara concludes its first. Both series are so engrossing, they prove that, in the right hands, TV isn't just good therapy. It's great therapy...

It only takes a few minutes of watching the new cycle of In Treatment to be sucked in totally, and to remember why this drama series, starring Gabriel Byrne as conflicted therapist Paul Weston, is so addictive. It's like a series of off-Broadway plays, or a flashback to those wonderful days of TV's Golden Age, when all you needed for riveting drama was a couple of people sitting around talking. The only thing that could make In Treatment more compelling would be if it were broadcast live.

The writing, acting and direction in In Treatment is so good, you're never aware of the acting, or the artifice. Even John Mahoney, the most familiar face as the unpretentious dad on Frasier, inhabits his role of a wealthy, anxiety-ridden CEO so completely, and so immediately, that you observe him as his character, not as an actor playing one.

And Byrne... does the word magnificent mean anything?

As with last season, In Treatment divides itself into five weekly installments, with a different patient given one of five 30-minute sessions. Unlike last season, these aren't parceled out once nightly, but in clumps, making it easier to stay current or catch up.

This season, the people interacting intensely with Paul are Mia (Hope Davis), whom he visits initially for advice about a pending malpractice lawsuit; April (Alison Pill), a college student with a secret so intense she writes it on a sheet of paper rather than speaking it aloud; Oliver (Aaron Shaw), a pre-teen boy whose parents are divorcing; Walter (the aforementioned Mahoney), a business executive with stress issues; and a weekly reunion with Gina (Dianne Wiest), Paul's mentor. You'll remember each, long after you turn off the TV.

HBO is making it easy to dive in. Even if you didn't see any of last season's shows, this year's batch gets you up to speed without stripping a gear. (Eventually, you'll want to go back and watch season one on DVD, but that's nothing but a big bonus.) And the scheduling, too, is easier to manage.

The first two installments, introducing Mia and April, are shown Sunday night at 9 ET. The next three, with Oliver, Walter and Gina, are shown Monday night at 9 ET, in a triple-header. And all five episodes of Week One are repeated Monday night, beginning at 8 ET.

What could be better? Not much.

"Every patient's therapy is different," Paul tells Mahoney's impatient Walter, who comes to Paul looking for an instant solution to his insomnia, and demanding guidelines on how his treatment is expected to proceed.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Walter replies grumpily, and very, very sarcastically. "We're all unique snowflakes."

Yes, they are, and In Treatment shines a light on each of them without letting them melt. One wonderful thing about this show is that it reveals its mysteries slowly, just as therapy would. Another is that while Paul is very, very good at listening, he's not without some pretty serious issues of his own. Both sides of the equation, in each show's dance of dialogue, is full of meaning and subtext. Even the silences speak volumes. Sometimes, especially the silences.

That's what's so satisfying about Showtime's United States of Tara as well. It's not only Toni Collette's performance as a woman whose consciousness occasionally splinters into various "alters" -- but that the reason for this schism has prove elusive, just as her family's attempts to accept her decision to forego her medication has been played for drama more than laughs.

Showtime presents the season finale Sunday night at 10 ET, so you can shift directly from HBO's In Treatment doubleheader and catch both therapy shows in one giant session. Or you can do the same on Monday: Watch all five installments of In Treatment from 8-10:30 p.m. ET, then jump to Showtime for the 10:30 ET repeat of Tara.

Either way, it's great therapy. And great television. Take full doses of both of these series, and thank me in the morning.

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40 Years Ago -- On April 3, 1969 -- CBS Fired the Smothers Brothers

April 3, 2009 8:49 AM

Okay, I'm obsessed. And I'm writing the final chapters of my book on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, so this date is foremost in my brain right now.

Forty years ago -- on April 3, 1969 -- CBS fired the Smothers Brothers.

Their variety series already had been renewed for a fourth season when CBS pulled the plug. "Fired, not cancelled," is what Tom always says when talking about the show, and it's a crucial distinction. Ostensibly, the brothers were fired for not delivering tapes of their shows in time for preview by affiliates, but what really did them in was using their prime time show to say something that mattered. Or try to.

The show that was pulled by CBS and never shown, the one with the second comic sermonette by David Steinberg, ended with Tom acknowledging something no other prime-time TV was prepared to do that weekend. He noted the first anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., and said, "Let's hope his dream will someday come true."

In prime time, on broadcast TV, that type of political passion from an entertainment program was as rare then as it is now. Back to the book And on days like this, when I realize how singularly brave and important a show Comedy Hour was, I can't get back quickly enough...

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