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November 2009 Archives
My Smothers Brothers Book "Drops" This Week -- And So Do I, Into a Few National TV and Radio Shows
November 30, 2009 5:49 AM
Well, this is the week I've been waiting for -- for some 15 years -- so please forgive a little pride, and self-promotion. But Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' hits bookstores Tuesday -- and this week, I show up on a few national shows to promote the book. Here's the breakdown of where and when...
MONDAY, NOV. 30 -- NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. This is a very exciting show for me. For the first half, I'm the guest, interviewed by Terry about my book. Then, in the second half, I turn around and talk with Hal Holbrook, who has a new movie out. Interviewee, then interviewer, in the same hour. I'm proud of both halves of that double feature.
(Check local listings for air times, or click HERE after about 5 p.m. ET to listen to the show.)
TUESDAY, DEC. 1 -- ABC's Good Morning America. So far as I know, a pretaped segment featuring Tom Smothers and me will run Tuesday during the show's second hour (8-9 a.m. ET). The interviewer is Tom Bergeron, who was very nice and well-informed. And I didn't even have to dance.
FRIDAY, DEC. 4 -- CBS's Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Again, so far as I know, I'll be appearing on this show Friday, in a segment to be taped this Thursday. More on this later -- but much as I'm petrified by this appearance, I know I'm in good hands.
And that's pretty much my major media blitz. After that, like a locust emerging once every 15 years or so, I'll burrow back underground (well, to my basement office) for another long round of dormancy.
Oh, and one more thing: A website devoted to the book launches today: dangerouslyfunnythebook.com. Click on it, and you'll get the main page, which we've just made live. (Thanks, Rich and Eric!)
And over the next couple of days, we'll add quotes from, and links to, the latest reviews of the book, like the Daily Beast nod shown above. (To read the review, click HERE.) Also, we'll add detailed chapter-by-chapter book notes, for those interested in my research.
Remember, also, that you can BUY this book, too. (Links to that are at the top of this site, and the new one.) You must know SOMEONE old who doesn't want another tie for the holidays...
Anyway, wish me luck. Hell has frozen over for real -- and the ice slide looks like a hell of a lot of fun.
Avoiding Crowds on Black Friday? Burnt Sienna Saturday? Chartreuse Sunday? Shop TV WORTH WATCHING Instead!
November 26, 2009 6:07 PM
On Thanksgiving weekend, if you want to get a jump on holiday shopping, but don't want to deal with the traffic and crowds and lines, TV WORTH WATCHING is happy to provide an easy solution, Several of them, actually...
Diane Werts, who already has compiled a too-cool-for-school compendium of TV-on-DVD gift ideas for this shopping season, has added to it with another, more specialized list, this one gathering the best TV-on-DVD offerings keyed specifically to the holidays.
Both of these TV WORTH WATCHING Virtual Shopping Centers can be accessed, from now until the New Year, by clicking on the respective banners just above the daily BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS on the home page.
Also, to make it easier, you can jump to them by clicking here for TV WORTH WATCHING'S HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE...
...And here for TVWW's GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS SHOWS ON DVD.
As always, I'll add the honest admission that anything you buy from these lists, by following the links to Amazon, results in TV WORTH WATCHING getting a small percentage kickback. That may be the only money we generate this year, so every penny, truly, is appreciated.
And wait, that's not all. Diane also has toiled, like an elf in late December, to compile her peerless annual lists of where to find various holiday-themed TV shows on television. These lists have just been posted, and are only preliminary. Return often, and watch Diane's FOR BETTER OR WERTS blog, for continued updates.
Meanwhile, follow these links to amass your own lists of Christmas TV Yet to Come. If you're looking for a particular special or episode, this is how you'll find it.
TV Christmas Family Favorites (animated shows and more)
TV Christmas Specials (music, unscripted and more)
-- And come back Monday, because I'll be posting my TV and radio appearances for the week as my Smothers Brothers book finally is published!
GUEST BLOG #65: Tom Brinkmoeller Embraces the "Healing" Power of TV
November 24, 2009 10:09 AM
[Bianculli here: Pledge periods for PBS stations are notorious for bait-and-switch tactics, but sometimes some very valuable fish can be found among the bait. Contributing writer Tom Brinkmoeller writes about one such public TV special, but using much better metaphors...]
'Science of Healing' Extraordinary --
But How Many Will Get to See It?
By Tom Brinkmoeller
It happens to public-TV viewers several times a year: They go to the television listings hoping to find a gem and, instead, hear a loud ripping sound as the local PBS outlet splits its personality and loads its schedule with stunts. The goal always is the same: raise some money to stay on the air. The goal-reaching tactic is one of the most uncharacteristically gauche things these otherwise-rational affiliates do.
This is when feel-good and make-money lecturers take over the stage from actors, not-so-great performances by pop singers preempt masterpieces, and the antiques aren't on the road but on the couch as they and Lawrence Welk attempt to re-create the '50s.
It's also when the letters PBS morph into "Pledge Bait-and-Switch." Viewers attracted enough to these atypical programs to call in a pledge have to be disappointed and disillusioned when Wayne, Suze, Lawrence and company exit and the good stuff returns. They probably rejoin Dancing with the Stars or Glenn Beck, several dollars poorer but, if lucky, with a new coffee mug into which they can cry.
All of which makes it even more ironic when a program created for use during pledge time is as good as the regular PBS programming, but has to compete with the stunt shows to get on the air. That program is The Science of Healing with Dr. Esther Sternberg. The M.D. of the title, shown above, currently is chief of the Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior section at the National Institute of Mental Health. She's an authoritative researcher and an author. Being pledge time, one might expect such a program to be filled with a lot of podium time, bromide-spouting and large-chart displays.
None of that.
Matt Cohen, an executive producer of the program, calls it "a very low budget show that doesn't look like it. Every dollar is on the screen."
The hour-long show opens in Greece, where Dr. Sternberg, a rheumatologist, accidentally discovered that venues, food and other sense stimuli, when positive, can reduce stress and assist the brain in alleviating physical problems -- in her case, arthritis. In the confines of a single program, Dr. Sternberg explains and demonstrates that theory by visiting researchers who show the healing power of the brain when lower stress levels prevail.
"Each sense can trigger memories that trigger emotional responses that can help you heal -- or not, depending on whether they are positive (reduce stress response) or negative (increase stress response)," she explained.
It's a scientifically sound, fast-moving, easily understood program with the kind of high production values that put it on an equal plane with PBS' excellent science-based series.
The big question is how many people will even get an opportunity to watch this program. Matt Cohen and his brother Renard, whose Resolution Pictures produced it, originally pitched the knowledge contained in Dr. Sternberg's research to PBS as a 13-episode series. Not enough money for a series, they were told, and were introduced to another group of funders, the people who finance pledge programming. A yes from them, plus a timely invitation to a Greece-Crete press junket, made production possible.
And now that it is complete, The Science of Healing goes onto a large menu of shows from which PBS member stations can choose to fill their schedules during pledge time. It stays there for three years, during which it can become a "Waldo" hidden among all kinds of varied offerings. Getting local programmers to watch, and then use, the show is an even bigger challenge than producing a high-quality, genuinely useful, easily understood science special.
Crucial fund-raising, it seems, happens during pledge drives, and some stations aren't about to try out a new idea at harvest time. The tendency is to "stick with tried-and-true," Matt Cohen said.
Getting their show on the schedules of larger-market stations is a solution, Renard Cohen said: "Smaller stations want to see how well it does in a major market."
Every pledge-show producer wants time on a big-city station. As a result, a lot of selling goes on: to get on the key stations' schedules and at a time when people watch. The more money raised, the more smoothly the success will spread to other cities. Another oddity of this whole journey is there isn't a process in place to track which stations use a pledge program. If the Cohens want those stats, they have to hire someone to scan countless schedules -- probably the same person they hope to hire to lobby for their show with local programmers.
The hedge mazes of European castles are more easily navigated. But the payoff could be the series that originally was envisioned during the first trip to the PBS well.
"The bigger numbers we can show to a potential underwriter for a series, the better our chances," said Renard Cohen.
Dr. Sternberg sums up what new things such a series would do:
"In many senses we wanted to create a new genre of health and science television that does not elevate science above the masses and focus on disease, but that focuses on health and welcomes viewers into our world of science, and also includes the back-drop of history, archeology, travel and culture."
STATIONS RECENTLY SIGNED TO BROADCAST The Science of Healing INCLUDE:
(All times local)
Nov. 26:
WGBH 2, WGBH HD, Boston MA, 1 a.m.
Nov. 28:
WETA Washington DC, 6 a.m. (repeats Nov. 29, 12:30 p.m.)
Arizona Public Media, 8 a.m.
New Hampshire Public Television, 11 a.m.
KRMA Denver, CO, 11:30 a.m. (repeats Nov. 29, 3:30 a.m.; Dec. 7, 11 p.m.)
WMPT Annapolis MD, 12:30 p.m. (repeats Dec. 11, 10:30 p.m.)
WMPTV Milwaukee, WI, 12:30 p.m. (repeats Dec. 11, 10:30 p.m.)
Nov. 29:
Western Reserve PBS, OH, 4 p.m.
Maryland Public Television, 1:30 a.m.
Dec. 5:
HD 2, Idaho Public Television, 3:30 p.m.
Dec. 6:
KUED Salt Lake City, UT, 4:30 p.m.
--
Tom Brinkmoeller, who has been a caregiver for more than a decade, was curious to see if this show matched the claims contained in its PBS news release. The above enthusiasm reflects the fact that the claims are valid and have added a bright new perspective to a sometimes-challenging commitment.
Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"/"Seinfeld" Combo Platter: Pure, Delicious Brilliance
November 23, 2009 12:48 PM
Sunday's season finale of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, which served up a savory Seinfeld reunion as well, was everything I hoped it would be, and more. What an episode. What a delight.
And, if Larry David chooses to end Curb with this most recent episode, what a sneaky, perfect-pitch series finale...
There's a lot to say about the way this episode did so much so well. The cast, the plot, the twists, the execution -- all brilliant. And I DO say a lot about it on today's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which you can read and hear later today by clicking HERE.
You can also watch a rerun of the season finale tonight at 9 ET on HBO2. It's perfect -- and even though our website designer, Eric Gould, predicted one plot twist with uncanny accuracy (that Cheryl would fall for Jason), that was only the tip of a very cool iceberg.
Bottom line: It was the best ending imaginable to the year's best TV comedy. And the fact that it, like the Seinfeld reunion within it, was on cable, not broadcast TV, in 2009, is a fitting analogy for all quality TV these days.
As I say on Fresh Air: Cable TV, more and more these days, is where it's at.
Broadcast TV, sadly, is where it was.
Early, Easy Quality-TV Shopping: The TV WORTH WATCHING Holiday Gift Guide Rises Again!
November 18, 2009 4:21 AM
Give Diane Werts all the credit for this puppy. She's been toiling long and hard, and has compiled a terrific sampler of new holiday TV-on-DVD treats to give as gifts. Wait till you see her lineup - but you don't HAVE to wait. It's ready now, by clicking the banner just above BEST BETS...
We'll have more on this later, but I wanted to give all Diane's hard work an early boost, and give all you internet holiday shoppers a head start. And remember, because we want to be totally upfront about this, a small percentage of everything you buy from Amazon, once linking there from our site, goes to support TV WORTH WATCHING.
In this economy, your support is sorely needed. So ordering from our list is like giving two, two, two gifts in one. One for your targeted gift recipients, and one for us.
If you don't want to hop back to the main page, here's another handy link to the holiday gift page. And remember -- that new Smothers Brothers book makes a good gift, too...
GUEST BLOG #64: Diane Holloway thinks 'Good Wife' makes great TV
November 17, 2009 10:00 AM
[Bianculli here: Contributing critic Diane Holloway gives The Good Wife a good review -- so good that she calls the CBS drama series "the good news of the fall season"...]
'The Good Wife' is good news for viewers
By Diane Holloway
As far as I'm concerned, The Good Wife is the good news of the fall TV season -- a quality drama that started with a strong pilot and lived up to its promise.
There is nothing more disappointing than a good pilot that turns into a lousy series. It happens. But it didn't happen this time.
In large part, the success of The Good Wife (Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET, CBS) comes from the powerful yet subtle performance of Julianna Margulies as attorney Alicia Florrick, a woman painfully and publicly humiliated by her politician husband Peter (Chris Noth).
But the strength of the CBS drama also stems from exceptional writing (by married writers Robert King and Michelle King) that gives us compelling legal cases each week, along with an ongoing mystery about the sex scandal that sent Alicia's husband to prison. It will be interesting to see how long the mystery can be maintained. Either Peter was set up by political enemies, or he wasn't. If he was, who did it?
But as David Letterman said after revelations of his hanky panky emerged, Peter has a lot of work to do in his marriage. Alicia has resumed her career and seems to have moved on emotionally, although watching old family movies can pluck at her heartstrings. Betrayal is a bitter pill to swallow.
When CBS was promoting The Good Wife before its debut, the concept looked like a ripped-from-the-headlines effort. Wronged political wives and tainted politicians were popping up all over the news. Gov. Mark Sanford, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and former Sen. John Edwards triggered salacious coverage. The real-life wives soldiered on, grim-faced with resolve on the outside, but undoubtedly shattered on the inside.
The fictional version portrayed by Margulies comes across as painfully accurate. But as the series has continued, she has gone from shell-shocked to steely -- with a dose of vulnerability tossed in.
After slapping her husband's face in the pilot following his excruciating press conference (I cheered when she did that, didn't you?), Alicia stomped off in her tasteful suit and high heels to revive her career as a high-powered attorney. Peter went to prison for abuse of power. We did not know then and we do not know now (for sure) if they will reconcile. She is a proud woman, and she has been scorned. She won't come back easily, if she comes back at all.
The political and marital corruption are subplots, however. The Good Wife is primarily a legal drama, which means the episodes focus on each week's case. So far, the courtroom stories have been unusual and riveting. In a recent episode, Alicia was paired with a young storefront lawyer who impressed her with his skill and idealism. The typical story arc would have found the young legal eagle returning as a potential love interest. But at the end of the hour, we were surprised, along with Alicia, to find out the man was an imposter. He never went to law school or passed the bar. He was a fake. And Alicia was duped again.
The writers have much to explore in the law office characters. We know very little about the haughty but slightly insecure law partner Diane Lockhart, played by Christine Baranski. There would be no point in casting someone of Baranski's considerable skills without giving her some meaty stuff, so we've got that to look forward to.
In fact, everything about The Good Wife is bursting with promise. It's my new appointment TV. And I can't wait to see what happens next.
AMC's "The Prisoner" Remake: Not Worth the Wait, Or the Time
November 15, 2009 11:19 AM
Despite a fine performance by Ian McKellen as the chief antagonist, AMC's six-hour miniseries remake of 1968's classic The Prisoner series is not worth watching. And that's not news I'm pleased to report...
Whereas Patrick McGoohan's original series was playful as well as thoughtful, this new remake, which runs Sunday through Tuesday nights at 9 ET on AMC, is depressingly dour, and, with its rethought finale, ultimately unsatisfying. Much as I love the original Prisoner, I can't recommend this remake.
For my full review, from Friday's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, click HERE.
GUEST BLOG #63: Diane Holloway Loves "60 Minutes" -- Give Or Take a Few
November 12, 2009 2:06 PM
[Bianculli here: Contributing critic Diane Holloway, a "seasoned veteran" herself, takes a look at one of TV's most tenured institutions, and finds it still relevant and excellent. Well, almost all of it, anyway...]
"60 Minutes" Is Still Ticking... And Not Only Surviving, But Thriving
By Diane Holloway
In its 42nd season, 60 Minutes, which airs Sunday nights at 7 ET on CBS, is old (ancient by prime-time standards), and the more famous correspondents are, politely put, "seasoned veterans."
But this granddaddy-of-all-newsmagazines remains not only relevant but, against all odds, strong. According to A.C. Nielsen, 60 Minutes is still an unqualified hit, finishing last season ranked 13th among all programs, first among news programs, and the proud owner of a 10 percent growth in an era of audience shrinkage.
Depending on the lineup on any given week, even young people watch what my now-23-year-old son used to call "the tick-tick show." I'm amazed that after all these years, I'm still watching it.
What's the deal? Is this CBS phenomenon nothing more than a post-football habit on Sundays at 7? I don't think so. Nor do I think people watch just to see what the star correspondents are doing. That may have been true when Mike Wallace, Morley Safer and Harry Reasoner ruled the broadcast -- especially when Wallace was leaping out from behind potted palms and grilling corrupt corporate and government executives.
People tune in for the content, for the big "get" interview or the news-breaking investigation. It's not smarmy fake news; it's real news. Excerpts from the broadcast often make their way into newspapers and other TV news broadcasts.
The genius of 60 Minutes is its dedication to investigative journalism (thanks to Don Hewitt, the late-great creator) and its clever ability, perhaps grudgingly at first, to sprinkle in celebrity features in a way that makes them seem both entertaining and newsworthy.
Hewitt set the serious, sophisticated tone, and it continues under Hewitt's successor, Jeff Fager. Even in interviews with noted dog abuser (and football star) Michael Vick and child-star-turned-movie-mogul Drew Barrymore, the tone is revelatory and tasteful.
Among its fellow newsmagazines, 60 Minutes alone has steered clear of the murder-mayhem-freak-show bent prevalent on ABC's 20/20 and CBS's Dateline.
During the presidential campaign last year, reporter Steve Kroft spent quality time with unknown candidate Barack Obama. Recognizing a big story before it becomes one is an important quality in a journalist, and Kroft was all over Obama. It was no surprise that he had unprecedented access to Obama at the nominating convention, after the election and after the inauguration.
More recently, General Stanley McChrystal, in a lengthy feature on 60 Minutes, made headlines when he practically demanded that President Obama fork over 40,000 troops for the war in Afghanistan.
And Lesley Stahl's sit-down with Senator Ted Kennedy before publication of his memoirs turned out to be one of the best and most-repeated pieces to air after Kennedy died.
Major investigations over the years include the horrors at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, the Wall Street scandals, global warming and the Mexican drug wars. The pieces reported the news and they made news.
Entertainment segments -- featuring interviews that range from Bob Dylan to Larry the Cable Guy, from Vogue's Anna Wintour to actor/producer Tyler Pitts -- always focus on people who matter and who have intriguing stories to tell. No Octomom or Balloon Boy on 60 Minutes, thank heavens.
I will conclude my love letter to 60 Minutes with one thought, one that just might get me in trouble with the show's viewers: I think it's time for Andy Rooney to quit. Sometimes his commentaries are still sharp and funny, but too often they ramble and have no impact. Why not give someone like Jon Stewart a shot at that spot? Or David Letterman? I appreciate Rooney's years of service, but enough is enough.
------
Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
How will "Curb Your Enthusiasm" End This Year? Our Website's Designer Has a Bold Prediction
November 11, 2009 12:36 PM
Eric Gould is an architect in Boston, the designer of this TV WORTH WATCHING website, and now is eyeing a new specialty side interest: he wants to be the Nostradamus of TV critics. Specifically, he has a bold -- and, I think, brilliant -- prediction about how this season's Curb Your Enthusiasm will end on HBO...
This season, of course, has featured as its continuing plot line the making of a Seinfeld reunion show, in which Larry David, who co-created that series with Jerry Seinfeld, agrees to mount a reunion special for NBC with Jerry and former costars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards.
The meta jokes behind this plot thread are delicious. Jerry and Larry have refused to do a "real" reunion show for NBC, the network that aired Seinfeld all those years. Yet here they are, essentially stealing the project from NBC and handing it to HBO, the cable home where Larry plays an exaggerated version of himself. On Curb, they're mounting the reunion on NBC. But in real life, it's not on NBC -- it's on HBO.
The other conceit is that the HBO Larry's motive for all this, after years of refusing to consider a reunion show, is to win back his ex-wife, Cheryl, played in the series by Cheryl Hines. Larry figures if he casts Cheryl as the new ex-wife of George, the Jason Alexander character who was Larry's alter ego on Seinfeld, Cheryl will be so grateful, and see Larry as such an admirable authority figure on the set, that she'll fall back in love with him. An early show this season even presented Larry's fantasy version of that scenario, with an adoring Sheryl hanging on his every word.
Episodes this season, when they've returned to the Seinfeld plot line, have dealt with the threat of other actresses vying for the same role as Cheryl, and with comic explorations of the relationships between Larry and his former Seinfeld stars.
The TV Jerry has as many social and verbal quirks as the TV Larry. The TV Michael is easily distracted, the TV Julia is easily offended, and the TV Jason has a lot of problems with the TV Larry, including his tipping policy, his overall attitude, and the NBC Seinfeld finale show.
All very funny. But Eric suspects more is going on, and with two episodes left in the season (Sunday nights at 9 ET on HBO), is convinced he's right.
"Cheryl David will be cast on the Seinfeld reunion..." he texted me in a prediction sent before, but confirmed by, Sunday's episode was televised on HBO. But his prediction didn't stop there:
"...And end up with Jason Alexander, the doppelganger of David's doppelganger -- Larry David's character's character."
This explains, Eric insists, why the TV versions of Larry and Jason have been at each other's throats all season, arguing over checks and such. When the reunion starts filming, Eric thinks, Jason -- playing Larry's comic alter ego of himself -- will win Cheryl's heart. By casting her in the reunion show, Larry will lose her to... himself, almost.
If this isn't the ending of Curb this season, it should be.
"Given that The Producer season," Eric argues, alluding to an earlier brilliant Curb season-long story, "was the meta-plot of the producers undoing a real production of the play using its own plot as the road map, why should this season miss similar meta-opportunities of the same kind?"
Why indeed? I think Eric is on the right scent. What do you think?
Why Has TV WORTH WATCHING Been Sluggish of Late? Guilty -- with an Explanation
November 10, 2009 12:33 PM
Last week, I posted a picture of my basement office, post-book, with a vow to clean it up because my life had gotten too disorganized. Well, I haven't even gotten down the stairs yet. And last weekend, when I was out of town, my laptop decided to break by refusing to have the space bar operate...
Have you ever tried to write blogs and entries for a website without a space bar? My temporary solution was to save a space from a stored story, write a new story as one long word, then insert spaces as required. I'm happy to report my computer is now fixed.
I'm less happy to report that, when the guys at the Apple Genius bar turned on my computer and saw my desktop, all they said, at the same time, was a very loud "WOW."
So I now post a picture of my laptop above, for your amusement as well as your sympathy. Give me a few more days to get back on schedule, please, friends. The nearness of the book publication has made things nuts around here, even for me.
But very soon, I'll have some good news to report...
GUEST BLOG #62: Diane Holloway Says Yikes to Sykes
November 9, 2009 3:02 PM
[Bianculli here: Contributing Critic Diane Holloway was, to quote from Rocky Horror, restless with antici...pation about the premiere of Fox's The Wanda Sykes Show. Now that she's seen it, Diane is singing a slightly different tune...]
Hey, I Wanda Who's Liking Her Now
By Diane Holloway
Loyal readers, and maybe even a few bored TV enthusiasts surfing the web, may recall that a couple of weeks ago I wrote an over-the-moon anticipation blog about Wanda Sykes' upcoming Saturday night show.
I went on and on about how hilarious Sykes is, and how much I was looking forward to her new Fox adventure. I also promised to return to the subject after the show's debut, to see if my excitement had been warranted.
Well, the answer is an unequivocal... yes and no. Maybe. The Wanda Sykes Show arrived Saturday night with decidedly mixed results. Anyone who ever voted Republican or who finds salty language and sex jokes offensive should stay away. But the problems ran deeper.
Her opening-night monologue, sticking up for President Obama and bashing his right-wing critics, went on too long and had all the rhythm of a child's first violin recital.
Bragging that she was the first person on Fox "not to pick on President Obama," Sykes set herself up as the comic defender of all things Obama -- a shtick destined to get real old real quick, even for ardent Democrats. Plus, she's hardly the first person on Fox to stick up for the president. Even Homer Simpson has done that. Double-plus, Sykes ignores the fact that Fox News is a whole different animal than the entertainment network. Bill O'Reilly rants on Fox News, not on the broadcast home of House and Glee.
Anyone who thought Sykes might temper her typically bawdy humor for network TV should have known better. And actually, some of the bawdy stuff was the funniest, although I'll grant that more tasteful viewers probably didn't laugh as hard at the bit on environmentally-friendly sex toys as I did. I'm sorry, but a solar-powered vibrator struck me as hilarious. No apologies.
A panel of not-very-funny guests in the Wanda Bar segment (yes, they really were drinking adult beverages but it didn't help) proved to be a groaner. The only person remotely funny was Daryl "Chill" Mitchell. Mary Lynn Rajskub (24) and Phil Keoghan (Amazing Race) were painfully dull, as were the topics (private space travel, modern parenting) the group discussed.
Sadly the show ended its hour with an excruciating segment, dubbed "Inappropriate Games: Know Your Asians," that required panelists to name the country of origin of several Asian celebrities. Tasteless and racist...and definitely not amusing. The late Richard Pryor could get away with racially-themed humor; apparently Sykes cannot.
Sykes is much smarter and funnier than her show, which was greeted with tepid applause, even by her tiny studio audience. She needs good guest stars -- Julia Louis-Dreyfus' 15-second appearance was a breath of fresh air, but we needed more. And the awful panel has got to go.
My fervent hope is that the first show was wobbly because it's still finding its legs. My fear is that it's as good as it will get. I have enough respect for Sykes as a performer and as a human being to think it will get better. If not, well, I'm sorry I brought it up. And never mind.
------
Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
GUEST BLOG #61: Tom Brinkmoeller Cooks Up a Tasty TV and Podcast Recommendation
November 5, 2009 12:41 PM
[Bianculli here: Last year, I interviewed cooking author and columnist Mark Bittman for Fresh Air, in an interview you can hear HERE. Today, contributing TV WORTHWATCHING writer Tom Brinkmoeller revisits him. I asked about steaks; Tom asks about podcasts and television. Showoff...]
Minimalist Mark Bittman Maximizes Bite-Sized Video Podcasts
By Tom Brinkmoeller
Foodies know Mark Bittman through his New York Times columns and his popular cooking books.
TV viewers who have an interest in food may know Bittman as Mario Batali's reluctantly comic sidekick on the recent public TV series about food in Spain (Spain...On the Road Again). Or they might have seen him in a guest cooking spot on Today.
In the former, he appeared to acquiesce to Batali's claim to the majority of the spotlight. On Today, as it is with any chef who appears on that show's cooking segments, there's the problem of fitting an interesting segment into an unreasonably short space, while contending with one or more of the program's hosts.
But Bittman finally gets the stage to himself, and proves himself an interesting cook and an entertaining host, on his New York Times-produced The Minimalist video podcasts. (They're also available on iTunes).
In less than five minutes -- usually solo on a kitchen set, but sometimes with a guest chef -- Bittman puts together dishes that not only look good, but also are uncomplicated enough to be re-created by the mere mortals watching him.
And it's all fun to watch. He takes neither cooking nor himself too seriously. Clear, succinct and interesting: The simplicity of the formula and its successful execution makes one wonder how much time is simply wasted on some half-hour food shows.
With 150 Minimalist episodes completed and the ease with which each show flows, you might think this is an idea Bittman developed and is happy to see succeed. No to the first; yes to the second. It was an idea that started with the boss. He reacted as many writers do when an editor attempts to oversteer the vehicle.
"The Times wanted me to do it," he said during a phone interview. "I did it kicking and screaming -- though now I like it. Now I think it's great."
He shoots 13 episodes every quarter, over "six or seven days." He said it's easier to do a complete package with the podcasts, because they're produced and edited. The Today appearances are three-to-five-minute live segments he called "a scramble... but I've gotten better at it."
The Spain series, in which he, Batali and actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols road-tripped to food venues across the country in a pair of luxury cars, ran during the past year on public-TV stations. Bittman participated in the planning for the 13-part series with Charles Pinsky, its director and executive producer, and said he "had fun doing it." Pinsky is thinking of doing a similar series in another part of the world, said Bittman -- who isn't revealing where that might be, or the identities of the celebrity travelers.
With so many video podcasts, Today appearances and the Spain series on his resume, it seemed Bittman might have a few recommendations of food shows he thinks are worth watching. But that would be wrong:
"I don't watch a lot of food television," he said. "I don't, for the most part, find it that interesting. It's mostly junk."
And that's all he had to say on that subject. Podcasts, stints on morning news shows and sharing an audio track with the outspoken Mario Batali probably engenders brevity.
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Tom Brinkmoeller, who struggles with the cooking of almost anything, understandably admires the author of How to Cook Everything (Bittman), a book that sold so well he wrote a completely revised 10th anniversary version.
AMC's "Mad Men" Serves Up a Stunning Surprise -- And a Modern-Day TV Triumph
November 3, 2009 8:07 AM
If you've recorded, but haven't yet seen, last Sunday's episode of AMC's Mad Men, don't read any more of this column until you've watched the episode. It contains surprises too potent to spoil - but too artistic and well-handled, on the other hand, not to celebrate. So if you HAVE seen it, read on, as I praise Matthew Weiner's series for playing its hand magnificently...
When the current season of Mad Men began, one of the most anticipated secrets to be revealed aboutthe show's 1960s world was exactly what date it was. Was the show coming back before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or after? Would Weiner, perversely, skip over one of the most tragic and significant events of that decade, or build up to it as the season progresssed.
We learned instantly that, in the Madison Avenue world of Mad Men, the unforgettable date of Nov. 22, 1963 was still in the future. But then, all this season, Weiner and company did something impressive. They made us forget that the tragedy might be coming.
And, in the most amazing magical feat of all, they managed to sneak it up on us and stun us with it, just as people were stunned in 1963. Advance promos of the episode on American Movie Classics revealed no hint of it. Nor did publicity photos, advance TV log-line descriptions, or anything else. In short, Mad Men took its biggest plot point of the year, and kept it secret, in an age when almost NOTHING is kept secret any more.
And my, was it a fabulous TV viewing experience as a result. So much to remember. So much to love. So much to praise.
I love, for example, that Mad Men didn't take the obvious approach of showing only Walter Cronkite, whose CBS reporting we now see as synonymous with JFK assassination coverage. Instead, the first image we saw, as folks from Sterling Cooper turned on their TV at work, was NBC's Chet Huntley.
And we got to see the reactions of many major characters as the news developed. Peggy, still flush with the thrill of illicit afternoon sex with a colleague from a rival agency, was stunned.
Betty Draper cried when she first saw the news, then, witnessing Lee Harvey Oswald's shooting on live TV, screamed in anger, demanding to know what was happening. Then she fled the room -- leaving Don, whose secrets she had discovered the episode before, as well.
The master stroke of the episode, though, was another continuation of a plot thread from a previous episode. Peggy and Don had been among those working on a new campaign for Aqua-Net hair spray, and the approved campaign, which we had seen illustrated in storyboards, had two couples driving in a convertible.
One woman wore a scarf to protect her hair from getting mussed by the wind. The other -- the Aqua-Net user -- needed no such protection, and enjoyed the open-air ride with giddy abandon. Excellent campaign -- until, the Monday after the JFK assassination, Peggy and Don, the only two people who came in to work on a national day of mourning, looked at the storyboards and saw two couples in a convertible... an eerie, uncomfortable echo of the last TV images of the presidential limousine driving through Dallas before JFK was shot.
When I saw those Aqua-Net images the first time, the Kennedy connection never occured to me. When the camera closed in on them in Sunday's episode, those same images took my breath away. Matt Weiner had played his cards extremely close to the vest, yet let us peek at them at the same time. That episode was a major payoff, and a master stroke of TV direction. And misdirection, too, because we never saw it coming.
This Sunday at 10 ET is the season finale. Is there any question it's an hour not to be missed?
